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Michael Dowd
is America's evolutionary evangelist. A former UCC pastor and pioneer in the sustainability movement, he is the author of the bestselling book, Thank God for Evolution, which was endorsed by 6 Nobel Prize-winning scientists and by religious leaders across the spectrum. Learn more about Michael and his wife and mission partner, noted science writer and family educator Connie Barlow, here.

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Welcome, and thank you so much for registering for The Advent of Evolutionary Christianity: Conversations at the Leading Edge of Faith. I’m Michael Dowd, and I was the host of this two-month teleseries (December 2010-January 2011) and continue to serve as host of this website, as I explain briefly here.

UPDATE: The entire set of 38 downloadable audios, transcripts, study guides, topical index, discussion leader manual, and guidelines for reflection and journaling can be found HERE.

NOTE: I wrote a blog post after each interview went live. To comment on any or all of the conversations (please do!), click the “Listen Now” tab on the main menu bar above and scroll down to the interview you would like to comment on (the password is “emerge”). Then click the “right here >>>” beneath that interview.

Check out the amazing lineup of evolutionary Christian thought leaders and their topics. Don’t miss scanning down this list to see them grouped according to affiliation. The fact that such a stunning diversity of Christian evolutionaries hold important values and perspectives in common, such as “deep-time eyes”, “a global heart”, and “realistic hope” grounded in an understanding of scientific, historical, and cross-cultural evidence as divine revelation is extraordinary!

FYI…Here’s some background regarding what motivated me to host these important and much-needed dialogues.

My Story, and What Prompted this Series

I grew up Roman Catholic. As a teenager—like so many of my peers during the 1970s—I struggled with alcohol, drugs, and sexuality. In 1979, while in Berlin, Germany, and serving in the U.S. Army, I had a “born again” experience. Six months later I experienced what Pentecostals call “baptism in the Holy Spirit,” evidenced by speaking in tongues. For the next three years, the people I fellowshipped with, the books I read, the television programs I watched, and the music I listened to all reflected a fundamentalist perspective strongly opposed to evolution.

I was taught that evolution was of the devil and would seduce people away from godly thinking and living. I believed Darwinism was the root of most social problems, and I was deeply concerned for my friends and family—especially those caught in the snares of a secular humanistic worldview. I even distributed anti-evolution tracts and was eager to debate anyone who thought the world was more than six thousand years old. So how was I to make sense of the fact, as I soon discovered at Evangel University, where I went to college after military service, that virtually all evangelical colleges and universities teach evolution in biology classes? (Most evangelicals don’t know this.)

Eventually, things began to shift for me thanks to the inspiring, healing, and bridge-building work of Christian leaders and teachers who saw no conflict between evolution and their Christian faith.

The final shift happened suddenly, in February 1988. I was in Boston for the first session of a course titled “The New Catholic Mysticism,” taught by poet and cultural therapist Albert LaChance. Albert, who had studied extensively with Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme, began by telling the scientific story of the Universe in a way that I had never heard it told before—as a sacred epic.

Less than an hour into the evening, with goosebumps up and down both arms and legs,I began to weep.I knew I would spend the rest of my life sharing this perspective as great news.

Too many Christians—millions of them—have never been exposed to a way of thinking about evolution that is soul nourishing, Christ edifying, and scripture honoring.

When they hear the word “evolution” they think of a cold, cruel, random, directionless, and ultimately meaningless process, rather than as the science-based sacred story of everyone and everything—cosmic, Earth, biological, and human history as humanity’s common creation story.

Many devout Christians also pray and read the Bible regularly and have turned their problems, temptations, and “bad habits” over to God time and again, yet they still struggle (sometimes mightily) with their “sinful nature”. Many have even resigned themselves to thinking that real freedom and joy (the peace that passes all understanding) isn’t even possible on this side of death.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

By no longer opposing evolution but wholeheartedly embracing it as The Great Storyof 14 billion years of divine grace and creativity (and by appreciating the fact that, if your ancestors didn’t have the very same instincts you sometimes find challenging, you wouldn’t exist), you can have a more intimate relationship with God and a more joyous life than ever before. (See: “Evolution Isn’t About Darwin; It’s About Salvation Before You Die“)

These are not the End Times for humanity, they are just the beginning. We know this from the fossil record and from careful observation of the cosmos. Studying evolution is like following cosmic breadcrumbs home to God. Dinosaur bones and prehistoric artifacts, Hubble space photos and DNA are here to teach us faith, not test it.

If this isn’t good news, I don’t know what is.

God didn’t stop revealing truth vital to human wellbeing back when people believed the world was flat and religious insights were recorded on animal skins. God is still communicating faithfully today, publicly, through the worldwide, self-correcting scientific enterprise. Facts are God’s native tongue! Historical, cross-cultural, and scientific evidence is how God is speaking to humanity as a whole.

Today, when I become aware of new transitional fossil discovery or see a new Hubble image, or when I hear that we are made of stardust, I don’t think to myself, “Oh no, this doesn’t fit with Genesis.” I think, “Wow, look at what God is revealing today! Look how God created us! Isn’t this awesome?!!”

Only by looking at cosmic history through the eyes of faith will the devoutly religious be able to appreciate how omnipresent is ‘God’s guidance’, how natural and real are ‘God’s promises’, how obvious and universal is ‘God’s will’, and how this-world salvific is ‘God’s way’. Only by looking through evolutionary eyes can we see our way out of the current global integrity crisis that is destroying economies and ecosystems around the world.

Until we recognize billions of years (not just thousands of years) of grace and guidance, we will remain stuck with abstract and trivial concepts of God, morally confusing and divisive notions of scripture, and unnatural and competitive understandings of religion.

This is why my wife and I and our team have been working so hard the last couple of months to bring this two-month “event” to you. It’s also why we are so excited to invite you to add your voice to this historic conversation.

Please introduce yourself in the comments section below, and share with other participants why you decided to register for this teleseries and what you hope to gain from the experience of listening to the conversations and participating in the discussion yourself.

I´m Swedish and work with yoga and meditation as a path for social change within the Swedish Prison System. Have been deeply influenced by the American scientist Dr. Jonas Salk and his concept of Universal Evolution which he presented already in the early 70´s. Matthew Fox has also been an important source of inspiration with his work in Creation Spirituality. My academic background is Interfaith Studies and I have worked in numerous community projects for public health and a more positive outlook for the future based upon the visions and my collaboration with Jonas Salk. I´m looking forward to partcipating in this program, so thank you for taking the initiative and the work to carry through with this ambitious project!
In light & love,
Eva

December 4 2010
Hello Timothy – we share the same surname. I live in Tasmania, state of Australia.
I am a grandmother and a protestant. I am so excited about ‘The Advent of Christianity: Conversations at the Leading Edge of Faith.’
I read Swimme and Berry last year and many things fell into place for me. I wait in excited anticipation. Thank You

I am a Passionist from Ireland and enjoyed your books about our shared herritage. I see the Earth Story as the new Meta Narrative which calls us into a new way of seeing and believing which will connect with our experience and bring hope to all we share the universe with.

I too am looking forward to this encounter. I just bought your book, Michael, a couple of weeks ago and look forward to reading it. I also heard you interviewed … I believe on CBC.

So many people are longing for a new context to the sacred story. As a retired religious studies teacher of 30 years, I have seen the possibilities for passion and commitment in our young people when they came to trust that “God is Big”. As Richard Rohr says, “God is bigger than any of the boxes we create … so don’t worry too much about defending the boxes!”

There is so much to learn … to be open to … to push the boundaries into horizons!! Thank you!

Hi, my name is Gloria, I was born in Spain and I lived between Spain and US (Virginia) I am an ecumenical catholic married to a shia muslim from Iran, we have two boys, 10 and 18.
I am a canon lawyer, and I teach Canon Law and Law Religion and Public Policy in the Spanish State University. I am looking forward to be a part of these exchange and the dialogue between Science and Spirituality, a wider and updated approach than Faith and Reason
Thanks

I’m a Mill Hill Missionary Priest from England. I often feel uncomfortable and ‘like a square peg in a round hole’ while trying to conform with the image and some teachings and practices of the Catholic Church. After all I’m supposed to be an official representative of the Church! I have read and listened to some of the people you have on the Programme and their writings and talks excite me and I feel inspired by what they say. They speak to some truth deep within me. I am interested in how Christianity and Science (esp. evolution) can be effectively reconciled and seen as one whole truth.

John Quinn
Born Liverpool (Bootle) England July 3rd 1942
Grew up knowing three of the Beatles and Freddie Marsden, the drummer with Gerry and the Pacemakers. Perhaps the only Scouse of his generation who did not make his fortune strumming a guitar. This had to do with total lack of musical ability.
Married to Nora (O’Malley) 40 + years which is surely proof positive of the grace of Matrimony else I would have been kicked out on my arse many years ago.

4 kids
Corey Teaches at Holy Cross CSS St. Catharines
Played lacrosse with Rochester and Buffalo in the NLL
Siobhan On maternity leave from All Saints CSS Whitby. First child and our first grandaughter, Taryn, born March 23rd 2010. Taught with Trevor, her husband, in Dubai in the UAE for 2 years.
Dan Degree in English from Wilfrid Laurier followed by studies at the New York Film Academy in Universal Studios, Los Angeles. Worships at the feet of Kevin Smith. Worked with video game maker Silicon Knights and is currently at Alliance Films.
Kevan Graduated 2009 from Randolph-Macon College, Ashland, Virginia. Played varsity basketball and soccer, captaining the soccer team in his junior and senior years. Now doing his PhD studies in Chemistry at Virginia Tech.

I retired after teaching 36+ years as we lived and travelled in England, Ireland, Canada, U.S.A., Jamaica, Central and South America.

During this time I picked up undergraduate and graduate degrees in Social Sciences, Education, Religious Education , Philosophy and Physical Education and continue extensive studies in Theology which just goes to show that academia isn’t all it is cracked up to be.

Currently dogsbody of new catholic times sensus fidelium, a Canadian, Catholic, independent online magazine. http://www.newcatholictimes.com The work of quite a few of the presenters has appeared in cntsf.

I coordinate the Canadian Forum on Theology and Education. http://www.cfotae.ca Both Michael Morwood and Diarmuid O’Murchu have spoken there.

I also teach Catholic Religious Education to pre-service students in Brock University’s Faculty of Education.

I read, watch soccer – Liverpool Rules – visit my kids and grandaughter and enjoy myself. I do not play golf, garden, do supply teaching or watch my diet.

Finally some reflections for a happy and contented life:

Do not allow in your home either weigh scales or mirrors.

Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine
There is music, laughter and good red wine
At least I always found it so
Benedicamus Domino
Hilaire Belloc

Your ‘catholic sunshine’ is missing the also present ‘catholic cloud’. My marriage was shattered when my husband of 30yrs abandonned me in ‘our’ episcopal church to join the ‘so superior’ cath. church. His priests didn’t care what it did to his marriage, they were just glad to have one more dues paying member. After all, they need to build up the pedophile defense fund.
Up to this point I considered religion, any denomination or faith, a positive and uniting power for humanity. Experiencing it’s destructive power first hand makes me question all of them— it’s not GOD’s intent for HIS people to be hurt and split up over the ‘how’ to honor and serve HIM. If you hurt your spouse over how to serve GOD, you are not honoring GOD, but yourself, in an exceedingly selfish manner no less.

Your pain is tangible, and I feel for you.
For 13 (or 14 or 15) years, I have mentored the education for ministry courses in Charleston, WV. EfM is a program developed by the University of the South School of Theology. The best part of EfM is the growing of mini-communities that bring personal life experiences and discover how much in common we have.
I have watched friends leave the Episcopal church for the RC church; it’s interesting that most of them have issues with control (they want it).
But the issue here is what we have in common. The religious institutions can grow with us, or they will continue to lose their own communities. We’re here to learn from each other and reach for the Unknowable.

Dearest Mike,
I am a life long “practicing” Catholic. As all of my friends will tell you, however, no matter how much I’ve practised, I have never gotten it quite right. I am certain that we are the way we are because for well over 2000 years, celibate men have been thinking about sex. Soon after Christianity began, we picked up this disease (1Cor 7:1). The worst parrt of this affliction for my coreligionists is that few among us have ben able to imagine the sacredness of creation and much less the sacredness of marriage as the image and likeness of the God revealed in Genesis (1:27).

My only hope for Catholics is the power of the Eucharistic action in which the God of creation is revealed in the dyying to ego in the action of love. A love which can only be found in the e=mc2 of dying to ego and in the movement of matter to Spirit of radical openness to other and the giving annd receiving of selves that makes human life worth living. I find in Einstein’s equasion the power of love to heal, change and renew the creation that our species has been hell-bent to destroy.

Dear Meike Your reading of your situation is right on. I take you nto my heart and hold you there as you live through this. Maybe series such as this will bring us together and lead us away from these divisions that are so hurtful

Well, this is my closest ‘degree of separation’ from The Beatles (other than having the NAME ‘Beedle’ and 2 brothers named John and Paul which was a little hard to live with in the mid-60′s!) and just have to tell you how thrilled I am!

I’m a retired psychologist and a life-long spiritual seeker. For the past 35+ years, I have been an ardent practitioner of mindfulness meditation (Vipassana). My main aim throughout my life has been–and continues to be–to align myself as fully as possible with the Perennial Philosophy at the core of all of the world’s great wisdom traditions and with the awesome truths of modern science.

I view the multiple urgent global crises that we now face as quintessential examples of “dangerous opportunities,” as rendered in the Chinese ideogram for “crisis.” I pray that their urgency will guide us into dropping our collective and mindless divisiveness just as we would let go of a red-hot coal and propel us in implementing the awesome creativity that is our evolutionary heritage.

As I see it, we can no longer afford to replace Truth with mythology; rather, we must be guided fully and wisely by the evidentially-based Truth that can set us free from the pervasive ego-based greed, hatred and delusion that has caused–and continues to cause–massive suffering in the world.

Therefore, I am absolutely overjoyed to know that you, Michael and Connie, are now following up the great gift of “Thank God for Evolution” with this highly promising tele-series. I will do everything possible to help it to “go viral.” Thanks so much for your selfless and dedicated creativity in putting it together.

I am a lifelong learner — am excited about this offering! I have read and heard many of the people included in this offering. I am a Vatican II Catholic who practices what Joan Chittester calls “The Ministry of Irritation.”

This is GREAT news! When I read the initial line up of wonderful and knowledgable speakers, I was wishing Joan were included. It’s great to know she’s potentially coming next year.

I am a retired psychotherapist and author of a video and print series on human sexuality. I worked in the Catholic school system, nationally, for many years. I am most interested in learning and growing spiritually. I find the best way for me to do this is to participate in programs such as yours, for which I am ever so grateful. Sitting in the pew on Sunday morning is comforting but seldom feeds my soul or intellect in a way that challenges me to push my boundaries or think outside the box. I’m very happy to be participating!

I am a minister in The United Church of Canada, who has had the fortune to grow up in both a denomination and a family that accepted both scientific exploration (including seeing life as growing through evolutionary processes) and a Christian faith story – and didn’t see that the two were at odds with one another.

As a life-long learner, I am excited to hear what each of these speakers, and the wider community, will have to say.

I was casting about for an Advent discipline that would speak to my soul, my heart, and my mind – and an invitation to this series showed up in my inbox. Thank you, Michael and team for putting this together!

I’m a clergy person ordained by The United Methodist Church but with strong ties to The Center for Progressive Christianity. I am also a Spiritual Director committed to our ongoing relationship and dialogue with “wild things” — in nature, itself, principally, but also with those deeply-held religious ideas that, while they may seem “wild” to us at first, after further exploration we discover share a unity with a profound Mystery which we all value.

Doug, Good to see you here and to catch up on your thinking. I like what you are doing and want you to know I share in it all. You left your mark in Nome and since I returned from Alaska I have been wanting to talk with you. All the best, John Dodson

I bought your book last year and was very impressed. As a Presbyterian and a Bright, I strongly endorse your synthesis. Thanks for producing this new speaker series. I will sent the notice to all my More Light Presbyterian study group here in St. Louis.

I’m the Interim Senior Minister at Jefferson Unitarian Church in Golden, Colorado. I’m a board member at Pacific School of Religion, former faculty member at Starr King School for the Ministry, and adjunct faculty at Iliff. I’ve long been involved both as a faculty member and parish minister in interfaith work but can’t get it through my head, as much as I know about religion, that anyone with an open mind and a willingness to look at what we know about the world could ever doubt evolution. The stories of the world’s great religions, including the Judeo-Christian faith in which I’m grounded, provide guidance for a lot of my life. But they don’t take the place of – nor were they meant to take the place – of what we can learn from scientific inquiry. So, thanks for helping us get this.

Michael and Connie — Shalom to you in this effort. Sounds like you, Michael, have battled that ca. and are up to making another witness of this wonderful subject of seeing and living the “big picture.” It looks great especially with the speakers lined up. I’m a retired pastor and know the need to really tackle this linkage of science/evolution and the faith journey and helping folks of many stripes to go beyond to “old stuff” and see and live the “emerging complexity” that will help us all collectively to live the ressurection now and be the sacred and compassionate people we are capable of being. Henry
Henry

Thanks, Henry. Yes, my last CT scan in June showed no sign of cancer. I fly to Seattle this Tuesday to be tested again. I’m hopeful, and feel great! I’ve gained back all my hair, weight, strength, and passion for life (as you can see). Grace abounds!

I grew up United Methodist in a family dedicated to learning and exploring the wonders of God’s world through science. I am now an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and have a congregation blessed with bright, scientifically-minded children and youth who don’t need to experience what one of our college-aged students experienced in college. I don’t ever want any of this generation to have to explain to fellow science majors how one can be a Christian (or believer in any other faith) and a scientist at the same time on the one hand and to Christians (or believers in any other faith) how one can be a Christian and a scientist at the same time.

I’m also seriously considering doing my doctoral work on a curriculum that will engage Christians in thoughtful, deliberate, and exciting exploration of science as exactly what Mr. Dowd proclaims – the ongoing revelation of God at work in the cosmos.

Hi
I am a UK police officer. I have spent most of my working on social cohesion both internally through multi-faith and multi-life-choice industrial relations, and in the community particularly Christianities relationship with society.

I also am a blogger on religion and politics in Europe aimed at speaking with Americans who are concerned about the changes they are witnessing on the continent.

I am an evangelical open to the spirit within all other Christians outside my own tradition and am very interested to see what this initiative will bring to my faith.

I am a biologist (B.S., M. S., Univeristy of Michigan) who has been to seminary (Princeton Theological Seminary) and did my doctorate on creationism/evolution at Montana State University with esteemed paleontologist Jack Horner on my committee. He encouraged me to write a book based on my dissertation and it is “Honest to Genesis: A Biblical and Scientific Challenge to Creationism.” I have taught science and religion classes at Juniata College and University of Nevada Las Vegas and co-edit the newsletter for the American Scientific Affiliation (scientists who are Christians). I won a Templeton Award and am very active in the area of science and religion, especially with respect to evolution and creationism. It is wonderful that Michael Zimmerman has established the Clergy Letter Project and Evolution Weekend and we definitely need to get the word out.

It’s an honor to meet you, Margaret! IMHO, the ASA is doing some of the most important bridge-building work in the world today. When I was a student at Evangel University in the 1980s (affiliated with the Assemblies of God), the ASA and Richard Bube’s writings were my lifeline. You’re going to love these conversations! And your voice will be invaluable in the forums and conversations that ensue in this blog space and on Facebook. I’m thrilled that you’re participating!

I’m a semi retired physical scientist and a Presbyterian elder. I consider myself to be a part of the progressive church movement, although I may be more progressive than most. My belief, still evolving, is that the issue of religion vs science is grounded in the traditional concept of God as the Big Guy up There. Drawing from Tillich, I believe that God is indeed the ground of our being and from my Quaker ancestors, God is in, and around all of us. I’m not there yet, however, the polarized argument of science vs the anthropromorphic God is destructive and I believe the wave of the past.

I am a spiritual director in the Ignatian tradition and give retreats and other programs of spiritual formation, predominantly in the Twin Cities, where I currently reside. (I also have a blog, Creo en Dios!, on which I post daily reflections and occasional podcasts.) My “day job” is as a law professor. I was born Catholic and spent 20 years as a Buddhist before returning to Catholicism about 10 years ago.
I’m very much looking forward to this series.
Blessings to all,
Susan

Born in the United States and grew up in the Moravian Church. At Moravian College I was introduced to process philosophy and theology and it became the basis of my world view. I have spent 40 years in ministry growing and shifting in the way I believe. Developmental theory makes so much sense to me to explain growing up in all ways. The evolution of my faith has been influenced by many world perspectives, an appreciation of differneces, and the contribution of science to my experience of wonder and my understanding of miracle. I am so thankful to be alive in this very rich environment; a time of information from and integration of faith and science. I want to be part of this series because I like to hear different perspectives that can enrich my faith/life perspective.

Essentially, it was my childhood home life with my father, Douglas Straton, that has brought me here. My father was a theologian and religious studies professor whose own father was a very prominent fundamentalist Baptist preacher in New York City. Regarding the question at hand, it is not coincidental that my father also spent many a rainy childhood day wandering about New York’s Museum of Natural History by himself, absorbing all the challenging questions posed there and intrigued by the suggested answers. But it was the horrors he witnessed as a chaplain on the front lines of WWII that forever fractured his easy-answer, belief-based fundamentalism. Upon his return, he went off to Harvard and was “corrupted” by the theological liberals there, with one result being that I spent my childhood and young-adult years discussing the integration of Darwinian evolution with the theologies of various world religions as a regular dinner topic.
But it was all just an interesting intellectual parlor conversation for me at the time, and little else for many years, until life recently brought me my own “front line” of challenges, and I came to see the reality of myself as religious dilettante. Consequently, I have returned to a mainline church to find answers, a church in which my discomfort with traditional, narrow interpretations of scripture is quite welcome.
So I am here to further my exploration of what Christianity has to offer those of us who strive to remain experientially connected to actual present-time reality in God’s creation as it now stands, which is often seemingly so different from the contextual realities reflected in scripture. And I have to admit that, because he is gone, I am also here as an emissary for my father, who would have delighted in the fact that this forum even exists and might have been a contributing speaker had it come into being twenty years ago.

Peter,
I loved your post. Isn’t it interesting that often we don’t bother to look for answers until we meet our own Waterloo, whatever it might be for each of us in our own life and time. As a catholic priest (Ecumenical Catholic Communion – yes, we ordain women!), let us call on one of the saints, your father, Douglas, to guide all of us as we enjoy this spectacular explosion of true Christian community that most of us could have never dared share our thoughts in the past. I am sure that Douglas is smiling on you and us all.

I am an Episcopal Priest, retired, from the Diocese of Long Island (NY). I live and work in the Diocese of Texas (Houston, etc.). I live in Pearland, and have worked for 11 years at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, which is filled with young members and lots of children. They keep me young. I grew up Fundamentalist, Baptist, in Arkansas. My Father was a minister. But unlike angry Fundamentalists these days, he was a loving and growing and learning one. Thank God. I was enormously excited by Evolution as soon as I started studying Biology. I would bet that most people don’t know that Darwin published a large, two volume work on orchids. Using this as a primary source I wrote a term paper in college on reproductive specialization among orchids. My professor was a Sexologist, and turned me on to this subject. I am very happy to join this effort. Joe +

I grew up as a Mormon in a small Alberta community populated by polygamists who left Utah around 1900 to escape from US Federal agents who were breaking up polygamous families. As a Mormon, I got a thorough education in that version of Christianity. I served a mission in Guatemala, Salvador and Honduras after which I completed a master’s degree at Princeton in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. The disciplines and perspectives gained there provided a foundation for me to “evolve” from the exclusivity of this faith to a broader understanding of life and society. Unitarian Universalism has provided my spiritual sustenance since leaving the LDS church and is the platform which I use in discovering my own theology. The evolution of cultures is my current intellectual passion. I anticipate that these sessions will enhance my quest.

I’ve been interested in the science-religion dialog for along time. I peruse Michael’s website frequently enjoying articles posted there. I came to learn of this project through Brian Mclaren’s website. I am familiar with many of the participants having read their work, such as Richard Rohr, Spencer Burke (not sure Spencer authored a book, but I enjoy his Ooze video interviews), Kenneth Miller, John Shelby Spong, Doug Pagitt, etc… I’m looking forward to this exchange of ideas and information. My own background is both Roman Catholic and Protestant Evangelical, with my current status as unchurched. I’ve worked in the field of social services for over 27 years. Currently living in Portland, Oregon, USA.

I am a United Methodist Pastor retired, recently returned from Anchorage Alaska where I was serving as a Pastor of a local UMC. Living in Alaska I had the opportunity to observe first hand the changing ecological environment and know that the efforts you are undertaking are important and necessary. I look forward to more discussion and interaction. I live in a cabin in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California surrounded by redwoods and right next to a small stream. I will enjoy following this discussion. Thank you

I just signed on today thanks to the tip from Michael Zimmerman. I have been a part of his Evolution Sunday effort from the beginning, and as I said to him, “this is natural for me because I believe that God IS evolution!” Yikes, that didn’t go well with some of my collegues! I’m looking forward to an edifying and most exciting ride. I’m a Lutheran pastor (ELCA) in Cedarburg, Wisconsin (18 miles north of Milwaukee) If you are ever in town, please stop to see us – we are right in the middle of a tiny quaint city next to the Interurban Bridge.

I’ve been self-consciously involved at the intersection of science and religion since my last year in seminary (1967-68) and have been able to pursue a vocation in that domain “by hook and crook” through a post-seminary internship in the School of Engineering at North Carolina State University that became a tent-making ministry; through ministry in higher education at Michigan Tech, the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University; through a denominational voluntary association devoted to promoting scientific and technological attentiveness within the full life of the Presbyterian church; and through work within the Program of Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Sorry for the long pedigree sentence. Its sort of my religious “begats.” I’m sure these dialogues will be stimulating. I only hope that they might have some small concrete effect on “real religion,” the lives of actual particular worshiping communities.

I’ve been self-consciously involved at the intersection of science and religion since my last year in seminary (1967-68) and have been able to pursue a vocation in that domain “by hook and crook” through a post-seminary internship in the School of Engineering at North Carolina State University that became a tent-making ministry; through ministry in higher education at Michigan Tech, the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University; through a denominational voluntary association devoted to promoting scientific and technological attentiveness within the full life of the Presbyterian church; and through work within the Program of Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Sorry for the long pedigree sentence. Its sort of my religious “begats.” I’m sure these dialogues will be stimulating. I only hope that they might have some small concrete effect on “real religion,” the lives of actual particular worshiping communities.

I am a Unitarian Universalist Christian who was raised in a liberal Christian church. I see no conflict between the teachings of Jesus and scientific discovery. I don’t feel the need to explore the question of life after death. It’s okay with me to focus on this life and make the most of it. Science is a given, as far as I’m concerned, but religion plays a crucial part in making sense of the life we have to live and helps us both find value in our individual lives as well as the role we play in the large course of human history. I am a seeker of wisdom and am excited to engage in a discussion about the evolution of Christianity, not just how Christianity views evolution. Hope this is part of the deal.

Yes, Ellen, this series of conversations is all about the evolution of the Christian faith tradition, just like everything else in the universe is evolving. In fact, I’ve gotten some really great responses to these questions: “How do you see Christianity evolving? When you look fifty years or further into the future, what’s your vision of a healthy, vibrant, life-giving Christian faith?”

I second the idea of expanding the discussion beyond how Christians view evolution to the evolution of Christianity. Bishop Spong has written a book called “Why Christianity Must Change or Die.” I work for Unity School of Christianity and we believe very strongly that change is imperative. A few good topics for discussion would be Non-dualism vs. Duality; Is God Outside of Us and/or Within Us?; the Religion of Jesus vs. The Religion About Jesus; and How to be Christian While Still Honoring All Paths to God.

This sounds good to me too. I have always been drawn more to the areas of overlap and commonality in different faith traditions. I find it tragic that so much emphasis is placed on the differences. So whenever the conversation expands in this way, I would love to know about it.

I’m a retired United Methodist pastor currently finding help in quantum spirituality and delighted to be introduced to this project by an email from Michael Zimmerman. I’ll continue to spread the word about this project with friends, and I look forward to the presentations. Shalom!

I’m a Jesuit (Catholic) priest with my Ph.D. in systematic entomology. I’ve taught biology for 10 years at Jesuit universities in the US, including a course at St. Louis University entitled “Evolution and Christian Faith” that was inspired by the same spirit that inspires this blog. I’ve recently published a book that teaches this integration: “Confluence: Toward an Integration of Evolutionary Science and Christian Faith” (2010, VDM Press) http://www.amazon.com/Confluence-Integration-Evolutionary-Science-Christian/dp/3639290054/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1286522365&sr=1-1-fkmr1. I am presently doing pastoral work and applied stream ecology and entomology for the Colville Indian Reservation in northeastern Washington State, where I am with lovely people who keep me alive, and in a beautiful stretch of Creation, full of the fruits of evolutionary history that remind one that the earth is sacred, and its creatures walk, swim, and fly in that sacredness.

I was born and raised in north-western Montana and had frustratingly eclectic interests from early on, with interest in science, which culminated in an undergraduate degree in Biotechnology. In the middle of college, I had serious vocational struggles, along with some disenchantment about science.

While still admiring science, I also came to realize that I had an affinity for church, that I hadn’t appreciated a great deal until after graduating. I took a year off of school for discernment and then entered seminary in Pennsylvania.

I’ve been a pastor for a year and a 1/3 and appreciate the challenge and value/meaning of it. I remember some tensions in an ecology/evolution course regarding evolution and religion, pushing science over and against a fundamentalist stance, and a few discussions about the difficulty of maintaining both scientific and biblical truths.

The prevalence of car-bumpers with Jesus fish, or Darwinian fish (with vestigial or sprouting legs) alone or devouring one or the other or a combo of both in apparent harmony strikes me as good evidence for the need for such a presentation/discussion as the one about to occur this Advent.

Looking forward to it, thanks for providing a place for lots of folks to participate. Peace!

Hello. This series should be interesting. I am an ordained minister (37 years in ministry) in Wellington, New Zealand, and a professional biologist (my day job), with a PhD from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. I believe in the reality of biology evolution and study phylogeny as part of my research. I also have a high view of Scripture and biblical theology. So, let’s see where this leads us.

I look forward to taking part in this series. My colleagues and I at the Grubb Institute have been exploring these questions in different ways in our research, consultancy and training since our foundation over 50 years ago. What you say, Michael, is very encouraging. God bless your work.

Hi Michael and All,
Michael as you know, I am a Baha’i and a biologist with MS and PhD degrees in molecular biology. I am also a memeber of our local Women of Faith group. I am very encouraged by people of all faiths who are interested in understanding and exploring the relationship between science and religion. It is a passion of mine. I look foward to listening to the talks, participating in the discussions and making new friends who are striving to bring the world together through common, logical and profound understandings of our beautiful and vast universe created by our All-Knowing, All-Powerful, All-Loving God.

Intrigued by Michael Dowd’s effort to bring us together in this dialogue on science and religion. The dialogue has been going on for a long time of course, but using the Internet to do so is a great idea. I’m impressed by the wide variety of thinking Christians who have already joined in here.

I am a former Jesuit from the California Province, covered Vatican II for Time magazine, and have published five books on the post-conciliar Church.

(See my website for more info on my books.)

I am also president and co-founder of the Jesuit Alumni in Arizona, grads of all the Jesuit schools in the U.S. who live in Arizona. We do a yearly lecture series in Phoenix dedicated to “a thinking Church in Arizona.” (See our website <http://JAAZsw.org.)

“I think there is a Universal Consciousness that we are all connected to, and that we all use.
So when any of us have new ideas or new thoughts, they don’t actually come from us, but
through us from that Universal Consciousness that connects all Life, and then out into the world. The future of consciousness, I believe, is the realization of this Universal Consciousness and its connection to everything, and our understanding that we can use it. In the past long before the advent of the knowledge that we now have about Life and the Universe, this was called God, and given supernatural human qualities and personality. But in actual fact, we are slowly learning that this Universal Consciousness is just the way the Life Force of the Universe operates.” —Jim High

This is so exciting! I am a Presbyterian pastor in the “progressive” stream of things. I first came across the work of Berry and Swimme in the early 90′s and was thrilled to discover Michael’s book a few years ago.

so much of the church is stuck in the kind of disinformation currently being disseminated in such stuff as Focus on the Family’s “The Truth Project”.

I am Chris Keller, an Episcopal priest and theologian. My Anglican tradition has long affirmed that Christian faith is compatible with Darwinian evolution. My doctoral dissertation, completed in 2009, defends and develops the basis for this affirmation. It is titled: “Darwin’s Science in Chalcedonian Imagination: Barth, Double Agency and Theistic Evolution.”

I’m an Episcopal priest in NYC. I have a little parish on Staten Island, All Saints.

I use Michael’s film on evolutionary Christianity with my adult classes and have profited so much from every thing I have read by him and his wife and have had the pleasure of attending several of his presentations a number of years ago here in NYC.

I am a Unitarian Universalist of the last 4 years, having been raised Christian, but without a church for many years-partly because of the disconnect between science and organized religion. I look forward to this series, as I look forward to learning something new every day about this miraculous world we live in.

I am a woman religious and am quite excited to join this conversation. I am a former science teacher. My knowledge of science has always enriched my faith. Having read much of what Brien Swimm has written, I am anxious fro the next four weeks.

Thank you for the opportunity to learn.
I am a Professor of Psychology and Criminal Justice at East Texas Baptist University. It is really helpful to me to grow in my understanding of evoluntionary christianity. Check out my website if you want to find out more about my work in mystical consciousness, restorative justice, and the spiritual discernment project at ETBU.

I was raised a Methodist drifted away for a time then rejoined the Uniting Church of Australia then drifted again as a growing family and career got in the way. My complascence was shaken when I heard only the extremist (fundamentalist, creationist, literalist) voices within my faith being described as Christians. We were being hijacked! I felt I had to stand up and be counted as a Christian and to be Christ’s witness to my community and my family. I have been blessed with a deeply moving personal religious experience and so have been given the evidence that many sceptics deny is possible, for God’s presence and now want to grow in my faith and in my understanding of the wonderful mystery that is God. As a Christian and as a former science teacher and still a student of science, I have never seen a conflict in the understanding God and understanding his creations. I am still perplexed that many creeds, often US-based and well-funded, demand that faith can only grow at the expense of learning – that ‘ignorance is bliss’. Our faith has been on a dynamic journey over many centuries and it must still look forwards towards the future, not just embrace our past.

Greetings! I am a lay-leader at our local Unitarian-Universalist fellowship. I came to Christianity some years ago as a very conservative Baptist, and have over the years found my views becoming more and more liberal. I now find I have more in common with Progressive Christianity than my former, conservative denomination. I look forward to this series.

I am a person of spirit and a thinker – a former Christian, and a former person of faith. I have great respect for people who continue to be persons of faith, and I am very blessed to have associations with religious sisters who contribute to my spiritual journey in odd and wonderful ways.

I am uncertain about God, but I experience Spirit and its movement very easily. I love science, though I do not pretend to comprehend quantum physics and electromagnetic waves in even a fundamental way — yet I believe that is what we are at the root of things — beings made of energy which interact in the Universe together with the energies of all that is.

I am a Christian but I still am uncertain about God, if that makes sense. I certainly do know that there is a higher power and I belong to a Christian community that welcomes me and my doubts and that is what I love about being here. I can question and still feel loved by God and not judged for not having all the answers. I do believe that religion and science do go hand in hand and I look forward to hearing the scholars and hopefully gain some insights to assist me on my journey.

Many of us in the world today have been awaiting a teleseries like this. I’m very excited to hear what Michael and his guests have for a world so badly in need of a healing balm between science and Christianity. Thank you Michael Dowd for this amazing line-up of speakers.

Jim is progressive in both his politics and faith. He is a community activist in Northern Michigan and founder of Up North Ministries. He is on the local Behavioral Health Board,was Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm’s appointee to the Mackinac County Dept. of Human Services Board, is on the Food Pantry Board sponsored by local churches, and just completed his term with the School Board. Jim is a graduate of the Michigan Progressive Leadership Fellowship and has attended Wellstone Seminars for political organizing. He is a former Co-Chair of the Mackinac Democratic Party but is currently a political independent, which better suits being a faith based activist. He substitutes in the pulpit at Gould City Community Presbyterian Church where he is the Treasurer, Elder, Commisioned Elder to Presbytery, and Lay Pastor Candidate.He was recently nominated to the Stewardship and Missions Committee at the Presbytery level. Jim is affliated with the Presbyterian Peacemakers and the Progressive Christian Alliance. He formerly blogged on Crossleft.org. Jim is a Vietnam Veteran and former member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and a current member of Veteran’s for Peace. He takes interest in and is involved in veterans issues. He helps veterans secure their benefits from the V.A. Jim works out, does Yoga, Chi Kung, and is a long term regular meditator.He has a B.A. in Religious Studies from California State.

Hi, I do not associate my self in any formal way with the Christian Church but I do believe that behind the exoteric, institutional framework of Christianity lies an esoteric and mystical foundation that has largely been lost to modern Christians. I believe that it shares the same mystical core as all other religions.

In 2001, I encountered a man on the street who opened my eyes to the prophetic events of our time–esoteric interpretations of the Book of Revenlation as it relates to the unfolding of the Anglo-American Empire (Leviathan). I am interested to here what others on this forum think in regard to this take on Revelation, the unveiling of American Empire as the modern Anti-Christ and the emergence of a global evolutionary, integral society based on Love, Openness, Integrity and Wisdom as the return of Messiah.

I am serving a small Presbyterian (PCUSA) church in Northeastern PA. I am looking foward to learning ways that I can support my belief in an evolutionary faithful understand of our beginnings. In other words; This little dirt clod is excited and overjoyed about this opportunity to evolve! : )

I have alerted the Presbyterian Sunday School class I’m leading – In September we started a similar exploration using first Bernard Haisch’s book “The Purpose Driven Universe” and are now using John Polkinghorne’s “Science and the Trinity – The Christian Encounter with Reality”. I am something of a Polkinghorne fan and have several of his books. I will be tracking your efforts closely.

My background is in music and spirituality. Both of these developed at an early age and are intimately connected. I research in the realm of the impact of sound on the vagaI system (CNX) and find it interesting that this cranial nerve is lacking rigorous research for it’s afferent qualities and yet it is one that is at greatest risk in trauma and one that humans share with many other species even fish. This has huge implications for “gut hunches” and trusting in God. I have studied and practiced in various forms of Christianity and found a home in a catholic tradition – a universal yet with deep feeling in sensory ritual. The science is intriguing yet it is part of creation so I find myself quietly enjoying mass and daily liturgical prayer with an “ear” to divine messages about gifts of conflict in the service of growing love.

[Susan, I love that phrase, "with an 'ear' to divine messages about gifts of conflict in the service of growing love." So I thought I'd introduce myself here.]

My name is Jason and I’m a disciple of Jesus Christ who is an American church-planter in Australia. I hope to grow more and more engaged as well as engage my friends with the Good News that includes the Great Story of evolution.

I grew up in acapella churches of Christ in Oklahoma (and am supported financially by churches in Okahoma and Texas). I don’t remember a time when I felt I had to reject either evolution or Christianity on an evidence basis. I enjoyed them both, felt challenged by the meaning ascribed by Christianity and evolution in a good way. Only in the last few years, however, have I really begun to see the mutually enriching between science and the Christian faith in more concretely understood ways, ways I might be able to share. I’m thankful for my heritage, which has given me some excellent gifts, one of which I believe is the gift of differentiation through church autonomy. I’m somewhat comfortable with rejection, but it’s often awkward for me trying to find agreement in interfaith contexts.

I got a degree in Biology from Oklahoma Christian University. I worked as a missionary apprentice in Australia for two years, then taught English in Japan for two years, married an Australian, and went to Harding University Graduate School of Religion for an Masters of Divinity.

In my walk of faith, I’ve seen in as all-encompassing in my life. The Bible is useful for everything personal, familial, organizationally, nationally, and Biospherically. I’ve tended to hold a lot of ideas from my tradition loosely, but I’ve grown to cherish some core beliefs like Jesus’ Resurrection and the Kingdom of God more and more deeply. I think the Kingdom of God is a reality even larger than the deep-time Universe.

I love showing my wife, kids (Ella-2.5 and Noah-1), and friends creation with a sense of awe. I’m learning/applying permaculture design and I never get tired of reading the Bible with non-Christians. If you visit me, I’ll show you my experimental gardening.

I’m highly curious about how this evolutionary Christianity community can further inform how I share/receive the Good News of Christ with both church people and non-church people. I also want to keep growing in Christian character and integrity.

I have for several years now contemplated the implications of evolutionary theory for a world view that includes faith in Jesus’ God, who is love. I find it very rewarding spiritually, but don’t find very many people to share my ideas with. Either they don’t care, don’t understand what I’m talking about, or are downright hostile. It’s good to know there is a growing interest in the subject. I’m looking forward to what the series has to offer.

My perspective is different. As a fallen-away Catholic who then spent 20 years in Religious Science, the spiritual nature of evolution seemed so obvious as to bore me–until I met a wonderful fundamentalist bishop who didn’t believe in it, and I had to figure out how to INCLUDE him in my heart and circle of those I could work with to do good in the world. I need his passion for God and disciplined limits as much as I need the sense of limitless freedom and possibilities in evolutionary spirituality. We tell our story in “The Bishop and the Seeker: Wrestling for the Soul of the 21st Century.”

I’ve learned we could use more open mindedness on BOTH sides. As we discussed the book at a recent interfaith salon, participants passed up the chance to explore common ground to focus on attacking the bishop for lacking critical thinking. And so, I am eager for the promised part of your discussion on how to embrace fundamentalists of all persuasions.

Greetings, everyone! I am so excited to be part of this dialogue.
I was born and reared Roman Catholic, left the church as an adult after many years of struggling to make sense of the teachings, joined the Congregational Church (United Church of Christ) where I am working towards commissioned ministry in Justice and Peace through Interfaith dialogue.

After years of self-directed study, I maintain a strong Buddhist philosophy. I am also studying the ancient wisdom of my Native ancestors, which is bringing me back to a strong connection with the Earth and God’s creation.

I have long believed we are in the midst of great evolutionary change. I “knew” this as a young student studying under the tutelage of the Sisters of St. Joseph, which go me into no end of difficulties. Long before the “God Is Still Speaking” campaign, I heard His call.

I am an educator, writer, poet, spouse, mother and grandmother. Currently, I am unemployed (although I teach part-time and write), but believe that this is simply part of my evolution. Having lived through poverty, disease, dysfunction, the 60′s & 70′s, a failed marriage and menopause, I feel tempered, like good steel.

Being a positive person, humor sustains me. I believe passionately that we are all made of the same stuff and that as soon as we all realize this, life will change dramatically. Imagine a world with no more “them” and “us,” only “we.”

Hello:
I am a visual artist/art therapist who works at a Catholic University.
I would love to be able to address these issues of science and religion (specifically Christianity) with my students from a broader, deeper and affirming place. Especially now when it would seem we(as Americans)are pulling apart on incomprehensible lines of thought and emotion.

Hi Kit! I’ll be out your way this week, actually, if just briefly. I have another CT scan scheduled in Seattle this Wednesday.

On a more personal note: Six days ago my 27 year-old daughter Sheena, a SSgt in the United States Marine Corp, gave birth to my first grandchild: Ayela Rene (8lb 4oz and 21” long). Mom and Dad and baby are home now (in Jacksonville, NC) and doing well. I was present for the birth. Life just doesn’t get any better!

I’m a Lutheran (ELCA) pastor living in Wisconsin near the Twin Cities of Minnesota. I learned about this from the Clergy Project. I, too (like others on this site) began my spiritual journey as a conservative Christian (The Navigators) and have been “traveling” ever since. Teilhard de Chardin introduced me to the spiritual power of the idea of evolution. Rene Girard is my current passion. Writers from Huston Smith to Frithjof Schuon have helped settle me deeply into a happy state of not knowing nearly as much as I used to think I knew. It’s a great place to be, squarely in the middle of this vast mystery that is life and cosmos, yet possessed of a kind of grace-filled confidence that whatever is true is also somehow good. I have no problem with scientific claims of any kind since God (however defined) is the author and giver of all, but the dialog between scientific and religious inquiry is fascinating and important. We need to find common ground, all of us, in order to create better understanding and ultimately, neighborliness… Well, this is an odd way to introduce myself, but I am very much looking forward to the series, and to everyone’s input!

i see myself as someone who tries to follow Jesus, happening to worship in a local faith community.

Simplistically – I have come to see the writers off the Old Testament in expressing their understanding of ‘why is it so?’, as the scientists of their day. I see no argument of Xtn faith with evolution – it’s a furphy. Today’s scientists use different formulae (which are gobbledy-gook to me) but are still trying to express ‘why is it so?’.

The big problem seems to be human ego, self-definition (tribalism – who’s in and who’s out). Definition of self solely in terms of the God relationship is living on the edge and often very difficult.

I am a faculty member (psychology) at a small, private university in Philadelphia that has at its core, a strong foundation in the sciences. I am a ‘student of life’ who has been seeking Truth since my birth over a half-century ago. Dialogues such as those in this series are exciting to me, as such dialogues really don’t happen on my campus or with my colleagues at work (sadly, I might add).

I am a non-denominational Christian whose conception of God is much more expansive than what is espoused by our main-stream churches. I have experienced the greatness of God numerous times in numerous ways – the word made visible, everyday.

Hello all. I am a nurse practitioner, nurse eductor, nurse scientist, nurse consultant, nurse counselor, nurse coach – I have my own business that includes a private practice where I provide coaching and counseling services. My PhD is in Health Education / Health Promotion. Spirituality has always been an interest of mine – more so as I grow and learn and further define and experience my divine nature. As a child, I read science fiction and loved it! Still do. I seek ways to promote increased understanding of noetic sciences, spirituality, health and well-being, and nursing science to my students, colleagues, and clients. I look forward to learning from esteemed scholars and thinkers.

Hello,
My name is Corey- I am 24 years old. I live in New York. Raised in the south as a christian. Evolution up until recentely has been wrong, but hey what can i say so has the majority of everything else. A few years ago i started questioning everything. I went to school to study and become an Assemblies of God pastor. When i was a boy i was “healed” of seizures and “heard” the voice of God telling me to teach people about him. I thought that only meant the A.G. church. Lately, i have had my faith and all that i have known shaken tremendously. I have a wonderful girlfriend, who has never said Jesus come into my heart, but she is more like Jesus then any christian i have ever known. And for someone growing up believing Jesus is the only way to be loving and nice- she over turns that whole idea, along with a bunch of other boxes i have held onto. This journey is scary and i fight it more than i embrace it. Largely, due to the fact that I have been conditioned to think i am going to hell if i dont literally follow the bible. This is my story in a nutshell.

Dearest Corey, I am so grateful for you. You are at a place on your journey that it takes some of us many, many, years to come to. Know that you already have all that you need to continue and that we are all one with you. Blessings, Judy

Corey This is your Girlfriend.
I just want you to know i am so proud of you. And I love how much you teach me everyday. I also love our god/evolution/rob bell Pod-cast dates that we have on our hour long drive to school.
You are beautiful and I think you are exactly where you need to be and god has helped you get there.
love
Heather

I have no idea how I got to be invited to this wonderful adventure but I am grateful that I was. I am 76 and was moved to tears just reading all those very personal introductions from all over the world. I live in Dundas Ontario Canada. I am about three quarters retired from my 30+ year old psychotherapy practice in Burlington On. It is just after 10pm here but I can get an idea of distance from the times of the messages. Psychotherapy was actually my third profession but the longest. I started with a degree in nursing but always followed my own passions which led me to Divinity College, then courses in English literature, then courses in Philosophy, then three years of Psychology, then about 8 years of practical training in psychotherapy all over the US (we didn’t have much here in the 70′s). Like some others who wrote, I too have been on my own “front line” more times than I like to remember with some amazing successes and some excruciating failures (including a brutal divorce). I was raised Angilcan but joined the Baptist church after attending the then Baptist University of McMaster in Hamilton. Lately I have been taking courses online in what seems to be a meeting of Eastern and Western spitituality, still just following my heart. I am honoured to be part of this group with so many highly educated and brilliant people.

I am a passionate advocate of both science and religion, an attorney by trade and a born-again Humanist, scientific naturalist and moral realist. I define religion not as a collection of narratives from any scripture but, in one formulation at least, as the drawing together of all the facts into a coherent whole, as Michael suggests in his introduction.

Michael, I am thoroughly delighted to see you active again. That said, I am also confused reading your opening message. I thought you had evolved out of a theistic approach to religion, so I don’t understand the references to Christ and scripture. In this context, it sounds like an attempt to make naturalism compatible with theism. They are compatible to the extent that the stories found in theistic religions, including but not limited to Christianity, are interpreted as metaphors, or part of our night language as you put it – I thought that was your approach. They are compatible in the trivial sense that theism does not necessarily exclude evolution, and vice versa. However, they are not compatible in their methods. Evolution is a scientific discipline based on facts and on reasoned conclusions to be drawn, per established scientific methods, from those facts. As one who insists that we are, each of us, ethically obligated to base fact claims on scientific method, I am more than a little uncomfortable with your introductory comments. I think your work on symbolism and night language is brilliant but I have the sense that you have crossed the line back to another approach that I cannot support. Maybe I am misinterpreting your intent.

I am also pleased to see Ken Miller here. Ken has discussed a point with my son Matthew, on Matt’s radio show, about how a belief in God provides him with a framework for his world view. The point is unpersuasive to me because not every framework is useful. A framework can be wrong and can mislead instead of lead. As an analogy, imagine that you are commanding an army division in the field of battle. You know that the enemy will attack but you do not know when or from what direction. You decide to build a wall on your north flank. That may help if the enemy attacks from the north. But if the enemy attacks from the south, your “framework” may well seal your doom. Or, as a Buddhist might put it, it’s enough of a challenge to fill your cup with knowledge when you already think your cup is full; filling your cup with misinformation or bad ideas does no good at all.

So in the end, I decided to come here in the hope of reasoning together with others who sincerely seek the truth; to see what I can learn and maybe offer something of value to others. I will look for common ground, mindful that a framework has to have its boundaries; and while there is room in life for many points of view, there are also points of view that are without merit or simply wrong. In part, I am trying to understand better where those boundaries are.

As you will hear in the conversations (and as I hope you know from my writings and our conversations), I interpret ALL religious language in a natural, this-world realistic way. I don’t interpret anything in an unnatural, otherworldly way. Having said this, however, I must also say that I give people the space to interpret things differently from how I do.

I’m essentially a pragmatist: So long as people have “evidential deep-time eyes” and “a global heart and commitment” I frankly don’t care what their theology or metaphysics may be. It’s those who lack an evolutionary perspective and those who are unconcerned with the health and wellbeing of the larger body of life upon which we all depend that I worry about.

Given that people do have those “deep eyes” and “open heart” I have to say that I really DO care what people believe. The deepest core of religious traditions, world religions, indigenous spiritualities, the different theologies, are piece of our human journey that I treasure in people. I try to understand their depth and to honour what they can teach me. You might want to look at my interpretation of the origins story of the Andean people on my blog (www.richardrenshaw.blogspot.com)
Michael, I have a feeling you would probably agree with this but I think your phrasing came out awkwardly.

I am helping to plan a conference on science and faith focusing on the topic of creation for Spectrum/AF a progressive Seventh-day Adventist organization.

A few years ago I nearly lost my faith over the evidence for evolution. I have a passion to help others avoid the same catastrophe when the foundations of fundamentalist Christianity are shaken to the depths by the record of life on earth.

I hope this teleseries will provide ideas, concepts, inspiration, and conversation partners to help make these and other endeavors a success.

I’m a Unity minister who many years ago threw a Bible to the floor as my sister was urgently trying to “save my soul!” I recall saying to her: “You don’t really believe that stuff do you?” Now I often find myself referring to the many eternal spiritual truths found there which can help us so much in our daily lives — as well as in the evolution of our spiritual and human consciousness. As we move out of dysfunctional religious philosophies to discover eternal spiritual truth, heal, and re-create our relation with the Divine, with life, with nature, and with energy, I’m grateful to be in the company of these fellow seekers.

Looking forward to this series and hope I can keep up with all the speakers. I am a catholic Biologist M.Sc. Plant Pathology. Since my school days I have alway believed in Evolution and found it only gave more glory to GOD. I am delighted to see that these changes in thinking are spreading World wide and hope my Church will embrase these concepts soon. Teilhard de Chardin is my hero!

I am a Roman Catholic from the Philippines. I share Christian Meditation (mainstreamed by Dom John Main, OSB) and Mindfulness Practices among the youth and marginalized families. Recently, I have an inner calling to expand my appreciation of how just about everything operates within my faith perspective…my spirituality. And perhaps from there be better able to share the prayer of silence. The forum you are organizing will certainly forward my inner quest.

Much peace, blessings and enlightenment be experienced in this endeavor by all.

I am now a retired college professor, a former Southern Baptist, a former Mormon and now one who personally and directly pursues spirituality. My life is now centered in deep, personal experience of an intimate connection with God. I highly value all of my former religious experiences and training. Without them I almost certainly would not have been able to experience what I do now. It seems as if my life was taken over many years ago and everything I trusted and valued was stripped from me to enable me to be free enough to fully embrace a higher level of truth. I refocussed my life after much justifying of old beliefs and the resulting tribulation. My email name is N2truth, I write an e-newsletter, “Outside-The-Box” and my website is http://www.lightofawareness.tv. All of this I share as preparation for my current work.

I have recently published a 2-hour DVD, “2012: God’s Planned Shift (GPS) in our Consciousness.” In it there are mutually confirming patterns and prophecies in the Mayan Calendar, Bible scriptures and parables, principles of Quantum Physics and the behavioral patterns in the Cosmos. Many of the Bible scriptures and parables are more directly related to the recent global experiences and scientific discoveries than we have been taught. My extensive research in these areas has some focus on the works of Carl Calleman that are related to the Mayan Calendar and particularly his most recent Mayan Calendar-based book, “The Purposeful Universe” in which he very much concurs with your position on the creation.

Some time is devoted in the DVD to the perennial conflict between “traditional” religion and “traditional” science. It seems to me that they are both right about their own position and both very wrong about their assessment of the other. It seems that the first move from dogmatic entrenchment came from the scientists – not the traditional ones, but the new ones from the field of Quantum Physics. They have discovered evidence of intelligent behavior in the quantum or infinitely small, sub-atomic parts of atoms. The intelligent aspects of this wave form of energy are what has always “obeyed” the commands of God’s prophets and generated what we call miracles. Quantum physics has now identified in all humans the capacity to command the elements. This is how victim personalities believe and imagine that something bad is about to happen to them – and it does, simply because they attracted it to themselves by imagining it. God created man in his “imagination” rather than in his “image” (mis-translation?). Then God gave man “dominion” over all that was created. This dominion took the form of the same tool of “imagination” that God used and is the operative aspect of Quantum Physics that we can use.

Michael, I thank you for responding so fully to the urging from within yourself to fill the role you came here for in this lifetime. I see your unfolding contribution assisting in the awakening of many who are stuck in the dogma related to this issue about creation. Many of us are awakening and responding to our inner voice and bringing our unique puzzle piece to the complete picture. It is the global emergence of love that prompts us to act in behalf of our own soul and the souls of others. In the physical world, Magnetism and Gravity are the attracting powers. In the metaphysical world, Unconditional Love is the attracting power. It will be by the power of Unconditional Love, practiced by enough of humanity, that all will eventually be attracted, included and embraced into a society of Oneness (the atonement).

I look forward to this collaboration of ideas that ideally will result in moderation and unification of diverse beliefs on the issue of creation as well as many others. I see this action moving us into the prophesied world of peace and plenty, harmony and health, unconditional love and Universal Oneness.

Really looking forward to this event. I have been travelling this journey for many years myself. I am currently living in LArche in France in the original community with Jean Vanier. My biggest question in all of this is how do we moe from the knowledge to living. Thats what attracted me back to LArche because it is a radical idea that is lived into. Im coming to believe that the moving into the living of all of this Sacred Story is strongly connected to Permaculture. I believe it provides the bridge between head, spirit and heart into the lived out experience of what do I do in the hands. Excited to listen and learn!

Hi Ciaran,
I’m part of a permaculture community garden in Broomfield, Colorado, USA. Working in the garden has become a from of meditation. My faith community, The Refuge, is rather like a LArche community for the hurting, damaged, and addicted children of the American Dream. We have deep respect for Jean Vanier

I am a former assistant from Val Fleuri (1980). And in 1983 “imported” l’Arche to Germany. Greetings to the wise old man Jean. And to all the rest of the old age assistants. Don’t forget Père Gilbert (Adam)!

How refreshing to read of other christians that open their minds as they walk back home to God. It has always seemed to me that evolution – after the creation – was a wonderful gift from God after all what are we all doing if not evolving and learning on our journey home.

I am really looking forward to the advent trail we will walk together.
God bless

I am a theological tragic from Perth, Western Australia. I am a Baptist refugee in the Uniting Church. My interest in these forums arises because my informal study of the relationaship between Christianity and Science.

I am a Catholic having returned to Catholicism after being away for 25 years during which I was continually searching. In my search a whole new world of Spirituality opened up and I developed as a Spiritualist medium. So now my religion is Catholicism and my philosophy is Spiritualism. An interesting mix you might say!

Having retired from my occupation in 2002 I now devote my life to sharing my philosophy with seminars and serving where ever I am invited.
It was in February 2003 that I had a vision of Our Lady’s shawl when visiting Medjugorje and that began the return journey back to discovering a new perspective of Jesus. Our Lady inspired me to write an universal prayer for peace which I share with all who would like it.

On re-reading the New Testament I found a different one from that which I had thought He was.

This lead me to WCCM meditation centre started by John Main and to restart the daily practice of meditating which is of tremendous help in developing one’s mediumship.

The next discovery was Anne the lay apostle from Ireland where she receives monthly messages and I have joined them.

Reading books about early christianity and the lost gospels has opened my eyes to the real loving Jesus and just what His mission was and is continuing today.

My last DVD I enjoyed was “With One Voice” – wonderful and if we could only understand that peace just might be possible on Earth.

Hi
I am interested in the universal principles and ideals at the heart of all the world’s spiritual traditions; the new bridges being built between ancient wisdom and modern science; as well as how we evolve spiritually – through opening hearts as well as minds. I’m looking forward to the programmes.

I am a Lutheran minister serving a United Church of Canada congregation in St. Catharines, Ontario, and instrumental in bringing together an interspiritual group of leaders interested in building a shared sacred space on the Toronto Waterfront, as a place where we-all together can grapple with issues of Mother Earth. (Wow! That was a l-o-n-g sentence).

Thanks Michael for getting this group together. Our adult seminar has deeply appreciated the study of your book, Thank God for Evolution, and we look forward to your visiting us January 19th at the First United Church of Tampa.

The Great Story myth of creation is truly a new thing that must be seen as a sacred story. For our group the challenge is not how we as individuals imagine the truth of creation but how can we form sustainable communities that live out of that vision. Can the local church be truly renewed or are those of us listening to these talks living several lives? We so desperately need in the public sphere a new vision that includes all of God’s children and that honors all of creation.

I am a life long atheist who respects and honors the works of Swimme, Spong, Berry, and others who are working to bring evolution to Christianity. Your seem to have assembled a good body of such people and I’m interested to see what they say. My own belief is that we don’t need a super being to show us right from wrong. Science not only creates our world view but includes the moral and ethical code by which we should live.

The concepts of theism and atheism came into use long before we had an evidential understanding of how the world, in fact, came into being, and before we learned that the Universe itself is creative.

Given what we now know about big history, the 14-billion-year epic of evolution, the theist-atheist dichotomy no longer makes sense to me. Both presuppose a trivial, unnatural God and a Cosmos that is not itself divinely creative.

Reality is my God, my primary allegiance, and integrity is my religion. By this, I mean that what is real (as evidentially known) is my ultimate commitment and being in right relationship with reality, and assisting humanity in this process, is my calling and deepest inspiration.

Chapter #05 — A GAIAN CREED
To Be or Not To Be:
Morality, Mortality and Immortality

The Gaian paradigm has implications to our belief systems that go beyond a view of the cosmos. They include implications to our ideas of morality, mortality, immortality, as well as our system of human values. Some people have taken these implications into the sphere of religion. Some see the formation of a new Gaia religion. To others, an understanding of Gaia supports the values that have governed humanity for eons past. Without taking positions on such speculations we should at least open the dialogue on the degree to which these scientific notions might influence our pragmatic view of our lives.

For most of the 13.7 billion years that the Cosmos has been in existence, there was no one to ponder the question of to be or not to be. While quarks evolved into atoms, the atoms, into molecules, and the molecules into cells, consciousness of being did not exist. Each new step of evolution brought new entities and new properties. Only in the evolutionary phase when brain cells had evolved and created the human mind, did “being” — the property of thought, memory, and consciousness — emerge. Only in this brief miniscule submoment of cosmic evolution has the sense of being existed. Only in this small window of time have humans been the source of conscious being and recognized, as Descartes put it, “Cogito, ergo sum” (I think therefore I am).

It is safe to say, that for most of the past billions of cosmic years I (as an individual) did not exist. It is also reasonable to believe that in billions of future cosmic years after my physical death I (as an individual) will not exist. Only in a brief, transient flash do individual people exist. Certainly, I did not exist before a zygote was formed by the union of cells from my two parents. And, certainly, the development, by chemical and biological means of an embryo from that zygote did not have the property of independent action and conscious thought. It is also clear that, when I drew my first breath on being born, I was not the evolved being that I was to become. The question “to-be or not-to-be? was not in my mind. My process of becoming a human being was still ahead of me.

It is clearly impossible to identify all of the experiences in one’s life that contribute to one’s development into a unique being. Everyone is learning every moment from birth to death, from waking to sleeping. Each moment is a step in becoming. Our bodies, brains, and minds slowly evolve from the nothingness of our pre-births through to tour final passage back into dust. If there is no heaven or nirvana into which to pass, it is reasonable to think we come to an end.

So far, I have written about only two aspect of being — the body and the mind. There is a third aspect. It is more the essence of who we are than the other two. It is more ethereal and more everlasting. I’m not sure what I should call it. But, for lack of a better word, I’ll call it “soul.” By soul, I don’t mean anything mysterious, mystical, magical, divine, or other worldly. The soul is the essence, the unique core of our being of who we are. It’s who we are more than either our minds or our bodies.

This soul, the true center of one’s being, is not easy to circumscribe. It, like the mind and body, evolves. Its evolution ocurs over all time. Not that the past will be embodied in one’s physical and mental being, but from the beginning of time to the end of time what we become involves the whole cosmos. We have a birth date and a death date. But who we become is already, in part, predetermined by the world around us. The essence of our being — our soul — is absorbed over time from the preexisting world of ideas and actions, of nature and technologies, of awe and wonder, and of the beauty and mystery that exist in, and is, the cosmos. It is the universal cosmic soul. It is similar to the noosphere of Pierre Teilard de Chardin, the collective unconscious of Carl Jung, the ideosphere of others. It is the totality of the physical, biological, technological, and cultural worlds and more. It is the the knowledge, the beliefs, the feelings, as well as the written word and the passed on memories of everyone who has ever lived. It is inherited from our ancestors and from the evolving physical, biological, mental. technological and social spheres.

This cosmic soul has been evolving since the Big Bang. Each step in cosmic evolution has created a new part of the cosmic soul. It includes Mount Fuji, the Johnston flood, the ice ages, the Crusades, the invention of the computer, and all other happenings. Each individual at birth is enmeshed in the cosmic soul of the time.

A simple example of this idea of soul is that of a flock of birds. The soul of the flock evolves as a unit. It includes migration patterns, eating resources, nesting places, and other characteristics. The flock follows certain patterns for centuries. Each individual bird live for but a short time. But the memory essence or soul of the flock is passed to new birds as they hatch, join the flock, participate, and learn by doing. The soul of the flock evolves as it continually finds new opportunities and faces new challenges. Each bird gains its individual soul and passes its know-how on to other new birds that join. The soul of the flock is passed from individual souls to individual souls, as the flock evolves to meet contingencies of the time.

Humans likewise are born into the cosmic soul. They are embedded in the essence of all that exists. Who they are to become depends on what they absorb into themselves from all that is. Each soul is immortal. It is part of the cosmic soul. Everything anyone, makes, writes, says,or does becomes part of the cosmic soul and is everlasting. Shakespeare, Edison, Einstein, Jesus, Marx, Smith and others are still with us. So is Joe Blow, Anna Finklestein, and other common people. All have left their marks for eternity.

Each act or expressed idea is like dropping a stone in a mill pond. The stone may sink to the bottom never to be seen again. But its ripples spread out and may join other ripples to produce an overwhelming wave of social transformation. The origins of any act of social change may be lost in the myriad of its sources. Once we recognized this, we are driven to live a positive, creative life of values — to be one of the sources of what will become. Whether anyone remembers the name of any one of us, everything we have, said, or written is part of the evolving cosmic soul.

Each person’s soul is formed by every experience and every thought they ever have. It is passed on in the same way. Each “unexpected act of kindness or senseless act of beauty” makes a ripple like a grain of sand dropped in the cosmic mill pond. Every kind word one utters forms a pebble’s ripple that will be passed on. More telling in the cosmic soul will be some of the memos, papers and posts that are written. They are rocks that make a bit bigger splash, or at least have a guaranteed longer life. Most important are the interactions among people close one another — families, friends, and communities. In a person’s children, friends an colleagues there is a continual riling of the waters (particularly of the good stuff). It is passed into the cosmic soul in that it remains real in the future and assures the immortality of everyone who ever lives.

Recognizing the immortality of our souls suggests a new emphasis on morality. Every act, thought or word we utter should be in the context of its impact on the cosmic soul. They change the cosmic soul as they happen and they will be remembered and they will affect cosmic evolution for ages into the future. They provides us with reason for living. As one colleague stated it, the new moral imperative is: “Make all decision based on whatever promotes the health, competence and adaptive flexibility of oneself and of all the larger system of which one is a part” (Gaia)
Whether we accept this view of the human or the cosmic soul the Gaian paradigm suggests a view of It does suggest the below value system

A GAIAN CREED

ALL THAT IS — IS WEBS OF BEING

We belong to the Webs-of-being – - to the Cosmos -
- to Earth – to Gaia.

Belonging is the proto-value from which all other values derive.

We belong to the physiosphere, to the biosphere, to the ideosphere.
We belong to Gaia.
As the aborigines said it “
“we are the ownees of the land, not the owners of the land.”
As Chief Seattle said it,
“We can not own the land, we are part of the land.”
We belong to and are inseparable from our culture-
- from one another –from Earth — from Gaia.
We are interdependent with all that is.

Belonging is scientific fact; and,
belonging is more than scientific fact.

Belonging is not merely “being a member of”, but it is being subject to-
being in partnership with –
- being responsible for.
We belong to — are responsible for -
- the webs -of-being — the universe — the Earth — Gaia.
Belonging to-Gaia means recognizing that we are enmeshed in the webs-of-being and that our well-being is dependent on the well-being of Gaia.
If we destroy Gaia, we destroy ourselves.

Belonging implies “cooperation” — working with what is —
with Gaia — the webs of being.
Belonging implies “community.” In our face-to-face relationships with people we form community — we belong to community.
Belonging implies “responsibility.” We are responsible for Gaia.
We are responsible for one another.
Belonging implies “Love.”
We can not separate love (agape) from the fact that we belong to Gaia.
We love because we must love to preserve Gaia — to preserve ourselves —
to preserve the webs-of-being

Cultures built on values other than belonging are doomed to self-destruct. A culture built on “domination of the earth, and all the animals therein” is doomed to disappear. A culture based on “self-interest” is doomed to disintegrate.
A Culture based on “survival-of-the-fittest” will not survive.
A culture based on competition will destroy itself.

To be stable and sustainable a culture must be based on cooperation, community, responsibility, love, honesty, caregiving, and the other values which are implied by and intertwined with one another and with belonging.

We can no more separate ourselves from belonging — from Gaia– and remain a viable culture; than an oxygen atom can separate itself from hydrogen atoms and retain the qualities of water.

Bob Childs
I grew up in Massachusetts and came to Canada in 1960 to begin my university and divinity studies. I completed my Master of Divinity Degree and then went on to complete a Masters of Theology degree. I served as a pastor in the Baptist church for 9 years. I then went on to taking studies as a chaplain in a mental health institution. After completing this course I thought about going back to a church but realized that I would not find a Baptist Church in which I would feel comfortable with my theology or a Baptist Church that would accept me. A close friend who I had studied with said there was position open in counselling in the Therapeutic Community at an institution with the Correctional Service of Canada. I completed 10 years and eventually became an acting assistant warden for two years. I then went on to become the manager of regional staff relations in the regional office. I retired in 2000.
Throughout this time I have read extensively in theology. I would say Walter Wink has perhaps had the greatest affect on me, but there are several others. I joined the United Church of Canada in 1982, being drawn because of the church’s openness and its emphasis on social justice. For the last ten years I have led courses at my home church following several of “Living The Questions” outlines, book studies following Bishop John Shelby Spong’s book “The Sins of Scripture.” I am presently leading a course using Spong’s “Eternal Life – A New Vision.”
I do not see the conflict with holding to a faith following Jesus and the theory of evolution. I look forward to this study.

Thank-you, Michael, for this incredible gift! Truly a spiritual practice for our day! As one who has the NASA daily photo as her background, I am so excited to connect with this group. Thank-you, Bruce, for putting me in touch!

My present ministry is the Worship and Music Desk with The United Church of Canada. We have officially begun celebrating Creation Time in the Season of Pentecost for 5 weeks every year and one of my goals is to ensure evolutionary science has a voice in all our liturgies and other worship events and developments.

Our two adult sons and those like them are a huge motivator for me in pursuing this perspective on sciences and ensuring it is appropriately integrated into our faith and worship life. I hope computer science is included and how it is changing our consciousness. Otherwise, it seems to me we are just ‘playing church’ not being church. Thanks be to God!

Amen! And know that my wife, Connie, also uses the “Space Photo of the Day” as her default background for her Safari internet landing page. And check out her kids curricula page (bringing the Epic of Evolution primarily to private schools and religious education/exploration programs), where facts and values can be fully integrated: http://thegreatstory.org/kids.html

A friend sent me the link to your series, and it looks fascinating. I’ve enjoyed your recent interviews with Craig Hamilton and Stephen Dynan very mucy, and am eagerly joining this conversation. But, and I can’t believe I have to ask this of someone like you, are there truly only 3 women you could have included among the 30 participants? (If I missed one, there are still way too few!)

Yes, Betsey, I am painfully aware of the paucity of female voices in this first conversation series. Thank you for your courteous way of letting me know of your disappointment. I’m sure I’m going to catch hell for this from lots of others.

The original plan was to have 14 guests and I invited 7 women. But four declined (for a variety of reasons) and the guys…well, they just kept coming out of the woodwork!

I hope to do something similar next Advent and, if I do, yes, I promise that I’ll work much harder to ensure that more women are featured. (There are some great ones in the movement, to be sure!)

I also noticed the paucity of the female voice in your panel. It makes me sad for women. Probably not a reflection on you Michael. There could be all sorts of reasons for that imbalance. Women weren’t encouraged into science until many generations after men. Women tend to already listen to their Sophia voice but are still finding how to let that be heard. But I’m also sure that many on your panel are so evolved they listen to both their feminine and masculine self so that the feminine divine will be expressed. It just makes me more determined to value what I have to say as a woman so the future generations don’t have to see such an imbalance in the future.

Your series is gonna be fantastic and I will forgive you for the lack of women panelists in this first round. A suggestion: Ask your current panelists about women scholars, pastors, teachers in their own respective areas. Betcha you’ll come up with names for your next round!

I’m an ordained catholic priest (Ecumenical Catholic Communion – yes, we ordain women!) and I am sharing info about this series on the ECC Facebook page as well as my own FB page, website and blog. Here at St. Junia’s House, we have a handful of young adults who simply lost faith in institutional religions from which they had come (evangelical, Roman Catholic) and we try to be real. Thank God, s/he is real!

I am a full time mediator, part time clergy (UCC) raised by Methodists in Louisiana, educated in Chicago, really educated in the third world while living and work in Egypt, India, and Indonesia, currently living in Oklahoma. Two of my heroes are probably familiar to many of you: Thomas Berry and Wendell Berry. (they are not related)Thomas is the big thinker. Wendell is the more practical and down to earth. Wendell engages in the rough and tumble of politics and public policy. I am drawn to both. On the Wendell side, I am involved in the Transition movement which references Thomas’ ideas but acts on many of Wendell’s proposals.

I’m a Dutch biologist, science writer and (evangelical) Christian. Over the last few years, I’ve published numerous articles in a national Christian newspaper (www.nd.nl) on science & religion.
Several of these articles defended the idea that a Christianity and evolutionary science don’t have to be enemies. In 2009, I’ve published a book on evolution and Christianity, showing the evidence for evolution and explaining an evolutionary creation point of view.
I’m running a Dutch website on this theme.

I am very interested in this knowledge to develop and expand my own faith and also to integrate with creationist viewpoints in my local congregation(s). I am currently involved in a reformed church and plan to attend a Nazarene group as well in the near future. Thank you all for this ‘evolutionary’ project!

I’m a Unitarian Universalist minister, quasi-retired with my co-minister husband in Grants Pass, OR, now. Process thought informs my life, and wraps contemporary science and theology is rich and life-illuminating ways. My dad taught both high school biology in Chicago and the weekly adult Bible class in the Lutheran church across the street. Conversations at our family dinner table were a good beginning!
Worthy of note: Michael Zimmerman (Clergy Letter Project) has the first of a two part series over-viewing “The Evolution-Creation Controversy” in this month’s FOURTH R (Jesus Seminar journal); good grounding!

I am a church organist and youth leader at a small country church in Maine. I have no business being online right now, as I am also a piano teacher and have a student recital tonight. I may not be able to participate as fully as I would like–every night!!–but I find this work very exciting. Thank you!

I am so excited to be invited to attend these talks! Thanks for adding me to the distribution list.

A bit about me: I was raised Evangelical Lutheran and currently attend a liberal Catholic church in Minneapolis. I studied chemistry in college and have worked in R&D as well as business leadership roles for a large chemical company. I became intensely interested in this area of theology a couple of years ago for two reasons: I love science and what it teaches us about the universe and ourselves. Secondly, the reaction of biblical literalists to evolutionary studies is appalling to me. I have striven to read as much as I can on the topic to ascertain where the truth really lies (knowing life is a fabulous journey of discovery and we will never know “everything”): Richard Dawkins, John Shelby Spong, Richard Rohr, Willigris Jager, Michael Shermer, Carl Sagan, Brian Swimme and many others.

I look forward to learning more and engaging with the thought provoking presentations of this event.

I am a UU of over 40 years and come from a liberal Methodist background – my parents were ‘pillars of the church’ – we went to church more than anyone i knew. As a Unitarian Universalist it is easy to define what I am not! – (a Methodist) I love my UU church and have come to believe with all my heart that its openness to the wisdom of all religions and science and the worth and dignity of all persons can change the world,. Wow!
I recently lost my husband of 59 years as the result of a fall. He insisted he was an atheist his whole life but worked so hard to lead in the building of a new UU church on Whidbey Island. He loved what UUism stood for. I honestly feel that most mainstream faith communities are part of the problem of lack of peace in the world with their insistance on having an exclusive handle on the truth.
“it’s not what you believe, it’s what you love” says Peter Morales.
How do we come together to change the world?
I’m very interested in the dialogue you have opened here. It was great meeting you and Connie when you were on Whidbey. Glad to hear you are doing well. Cheers, Peggy Bardarson

I am a lifelong student (Philosphy, Liberal Arts, Education – various degrees and levels). Currently taking a course in the Bible (for seekers), “what I was not taught in school about the gospels”, a course on race and various others. I’ve attended a lecture of yours (in Northern Virginia), read your books and now I am really interested in this new advent adventure. Thanks.

Donna Gibbs here. A Sister of Earth, I have earned an Earth Literacy Masters from St. Mary of the Woods and thrived through the Yearlong Soulcraft program offered by Bill Plotkin through Animas Valley. I teach the Universe Story to my Kindergarten through Eighth grade science students using a book I wrote just for them…”The Seamless Universe: A Discovery Guide Through Our Great Heritage”. I am really looking forward to this seminar and want to thank everyone participating in this “GREAT WORK”.

Hello all! I hope to follow this series closely, even though we will be preparing to move from NC to VA. I recently retired and one of my major goals is to explore more deeply the unity of scientific and religious knowledge and theory. I got intrigued witn this a few years ago when Michael and Connie spoke at our local Unitarian-Universalist fellowship here in New Bern, NC. On a personal note, I too am going through recovery from cancer (colon) and progress, so far, is good. This has been aided by a recent marriage to a wonderful lady! I am hopeful that this series will also help us to find common ground between her Presbyterianism and my humanistic Unitarian-Universalism. Rodge

I am an Episcopal priest and Rector of a Pastoral size Parish. I have been interested in the pull between science and faith for years, but this has intensified since living on the Kansas state border and seeing their state laws concerning what can be taught in public schools go from only Creation to only Darwin. I’ll be watching for intellegent conversations concerning the marriage of these two views.

Dear Michael and Connie, WOW!
How I have waited for this day– what a great Advent gift!
While you have been ‘lying low’, I have come across other inspiring authors and as you might say, Co-evolutionaries. Among these, I really get excited about Diarmuid O’Mirchu (Glad to see him on the roster!!)
Another is Hendryk Skolimoski, whose latest book, “Let there be light” is another lamp unto my feet.
Michael, Keep well, and Thank you

I am a Presbyterian minister (PCUSA), very recently retired. I grew up expecting to become a scientist, and I have followed methods and developments in several scientific fields all my life. Paleontology and “evo-devo” are current special interests of mine.

For nearly a decade, I worked as an educator for a church-funded project linking environmental concerns, social justice issues and Christian theology.

During that time, I heard Thomas Berry speak a couple times, so I’m acquainted with that thread of Roman Catholic thinking.

I hope to hear of some new resources and directions to explore during this conversation.

What a special treat to find you and to have the opportunity to introduce myself–thanks, Michael!

My name is Mark Laxer, I’ve spent the past 11 years delving deeply into…evolutionary Christianity. The result: The Monkey Bible. It’s a novel or, more accurately, an allegory. I’ve worked closely with an extremely talented musician, Eric Maring, who, four years ago, read my then manuscript. Eric wrote a companion musical called The Line. I heard The Line and rewrote The Monkey Bible…

Eric and I are interested in working with the evolutionary Christianitiy community. We’ve have an amazing band and we’ve worked with a talented video designer from Blue Man Group–and we now have a show, which gently explores themes of evolutionary Christianity, and we’re looking for venues to perform this. Our opening launch event last September was at Luther Place Memorial Church in Washington DC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jev6Eq_U-1g

We’d love to work with Michael Dowd and others in the community. I’m thrilled such a “movement” exists. Please let Eric and I and the Monkey Bible “community” know how we can help. Please stay in touch.

The serious is brilliant–wow, you do good works! (or should we say, good works occur through you…!).

Just back from the UK where The Monkey Bible project made important connections in the world of wildlife conservation. Some of the ideas from the novel are finding their way into the real world of protecting God’s Creation…it’s very exciting…

Very much looking forward to talking with you and brainstorming ways in which we can work together. Shoot me an email if / when you have a chance to talk.

I am a Presbyterian minister and Spiritual Director, pastor of a multi-denominational church (PCUSA, United Church of Christ and American Baptist). My D.Min. dissertation was in “Wilderness Spirituality” from San Francisco Theological Seminary a decade ago. I served 6 years on the Presbyterians for Restoring Creation steering committee (now Presbyterians for Earth Care), and for the last 3 years have been Moderator of the Public Policy Advocacy Network for the Synod of the North East.
We were privileged to have Michael Dowd visit my church 2 summers ago. I became involved with Michael Zimmerman’s Clergy Letter Project supporting an “Evolution Sunday” in February several years ago.
For over 20 years I have read the creation theology of Thomas Berry, Brian Swimme, Matthew Fox & others, so was delighted to discover Dowd.

I don’t really know how to categorize my personal evolutionary adventure or my thoughts on evolution as it touches Christianity. The world seems to evolve with or without us, and I, like so many other souls, seem to be in it for the adventure of discovering new territory as much and as often as possible. As a preacher’s kid–my dad was an Episcopal minister–Christianity offered my first set of referents outside the family. School was still a hotbed of religious zeal when I started into that, so much of my learning is founded in the metaphors of Christian thought. My adventures in discovering the world have taken me through other doorways, into rooms with views without crucifixes, but, in the end, I seem always to find metaphors for the insights gained therein within the context of my first set of referents. God, Christ, and Holy Ghost seem to recur as elements sorted out by some sort of Maxwell’s Demon that randomly discovers connections. The recurrence informs my thinking in ways I try to keep selectively filtered or translated in my communications with others. I am caretaker at a Buddhist hermitage and learn a lot about translation in my discussions with the Buddhists here. And I am here because of a profound experience of grace. All the impetus of my life seemed headed toward an early cremation, but somehow God seems to have seen something there worth redemption. Thus my views on evolution in the physical realm also include this potential for radical, unforeseeable change that appears random and leads to increased embrace within and without the observable cosmos. I look forward to hearing and reading what folks in this particular dialog have to contribute to the widening of that embrace.

I am a retired teacher currently collaborating with Dr. Parker Palmer and colleagues in Courage and Renewal Retreat work. Michael’s story is one which I hope will be multiplied many times as folks listen, and join the dialogue!

I am an astronomer and lifelong Episcopalian. I teach a course called “Cosmic Origins” wherein I encourage my (college) students to critically analyze the Big Bang, Plate Tectonics, and Biological Evolution. We do a lot of in-class discussion– I do more teaching when I shut up than when I talk! And an amazing number of the discussions end up at science and religion. There is a lot of curiousity and wonder out there, in the upcoming generation.

I have given talks in various Church settings showing how, if I had to explain our modern understanding of origins to a group of illiterate Bedouins, Genesis I is not a bad way to go. It starts with light (so does the Big Bang), the world was initally covered with liquid water and the continents grow at the expense of oceanic crust (PT), and fish come before birds (dinosaurs) which come before mammals and humans only recently.

My name is Alysa Cortes and I’m biochemistry/political science student at Northwestern University. I consider myself to be an atheist Buddhist, and never seen any real conflict with science and religion. I’m very much looking forward to receiving these talks, as I’m sure they will provide some much needed sanity in the religion/evolution debate.

I pastor a church in Salem, MA (Witch City). The last 11 years here have included an interesting body of dialogues which have been ranging from the scientific to the radically mystical – often attempting to blend the two. Looking forward to this series.

I live in Texas and have a dream of dialogues in the state of Texas reconciling the polarization of positions: “perceived” atheist/evolution versus “perceived” Christian/creationist or intelligent design. End the polarization and start talking about how understanding evolution — the organizing paradigm for “facts of life” — enhances the faith experience. We need to talk about this in Texas — and support the people on the frontlines of teaching evolution — our biology teachers in the state of Texas.

A Chara (Friend!) Michael. Many thanks for your kind invitation to join in the Evolutionary Christianity global forum. I intuit this is going to be a very exciting innovation for many who have yearned for a truely Christian ecuminism, which may evolve to be a macro-ecumenical movement embracing all spiritual traditions and religious expression. I’m a 54 year old Addictions Counsellor interested in the interface between psychotherapy and spirituality, with a deep interest in the early Judeo-Christian Essenes and Therapeutae respectively. Is mise le meas/I am with respect, Ciaran Mac Aodha-O Cinneide. Baile Atha Cliath/Dublin, Eire/Ireland.

Ciaran, with you being an Addictions Counsellor, I’d love your honest feedback on first half hour of my “Evolutionize Your Life: Heaven Is Coming Home to Reality” program, where I talk about our evolved nature, addictions, etc. Personally, I think this perspective could make a HUGE difference in the recovery movement. I’d love to know whether or not you agree.

This program is now the main one I’m now delivering to all religious and non-religious audiences, from evangelicals to atheists and everything in between. I offered a version of it at the United Nations last April and it was enthusiastically received there as well.

Jesus never taught static dogma or rules. He taught in parables so the listener is always an active participant in the process of unfolding learning and understanding of the Creator’s infinite love for the whole Creation.

Truth is participatory, and it grows and evolves as our ability to understand the many layers grows.

I am an education researcher. I also have been studying religion (mostly Christianity) for the past 15 years. I have a strong interest in the relationship between religion and science. I am looking forward to the discussions.

I am a long time disciple of the cosmic story and what it means for the great work needed on this planet in the 21st century. Glad for your wonderful recovery, Michael. Thank you for the gift of this Advent journey. I look forward to “deep-time” learning in this great series.

Hi Michael, What you and Connie are doing here is wonderful!! Many thanks. As a biologist by academic background it has always been my delight to rejoice in Divine Mystery as evidenced in all of the created universe.

As someone on the brink of “ditching” my Christian identity, I will be very interested to hear the speakers on this topic; perhaps there is a way to understand my own evolution in light of what will be said about Christian evolution.

I believe you all exist (& that you are all fundamentally like me) –but what the significance of your existence is to me is an open question. What significance any of us or all or us have to cosmic evolution is also an open question. I am curious. I am not aware of any celestial or invisible beings, but I’ll try to perceive as best as human perceiving abilities allow. I do believe that if our species is to have any future, we better get with the program!

I was raised and educated as a Southern Baptist and am an ordained Baptist Minister, but my own spiritual pilgrimage has led me to an ever more progressive understanding of divine reality and my own faith even as my denomination has moved ever more toward the right. The fundamentalist takeover of the SBC starting in the 1970s, and pretty much complete at this point, has driven those of us with more moderate to liberal mindsets out of the central role that we used to play and into alternative paths. After serving as an active minister for most of my adult life, I have for the past few years continued to serve as a catalyst for life-changing through higher education. Even as a child, I never saw a conflict between science and religion. In fact, each has for me enriched my understanding of the other.

Another from Australia… am a retired Uniting Church in Australia minister, Founding director of The Centre for Progressive Religious Thought Australia, and Chair of the Common Dreams Conference on Progressive Religion. Signed The Clergy Letter early in its life. My theology has been shaped by Charles Birch and Henry Nelson Wieman (originally) and continues to be influenced by the likes of Karl Peters and Gordon Kaufman. Great to join this band of merry heretics and heros.

Here in Thunder Bay, Ont, Canada we have just finished your book “Thank God for Evolution” with our bookclub “Awakening Giant” (humanity)

We found it a real treat, and had some really good discussions. I have just forwarded your invitation to this event and hope you get some participant.

On a slightly different angle, good to hear that your canceer seems to be under control, and 2, when can we welcome you to Thunder Bay in Canada for a personal visit — obviously your wife is also invited.

Pleased to be a part of Michael’s efforts to create some form of big tent for evolutionary Christianity.

The Forum on Ecological Spirituality and Evolutionary Cosmology has been up and running here at Knox United Church for about a year featuring the work of Thomas Berry, Brian Swimme, Matthew Fox, Michael Dowd and Bruce Sanguin among others.

Although Christianity, organized religion and God are BIG turnoffs for many (most?) people in Canada, I think that the churches have an opportunity to play a leadership role in this emerging expression of Universal Creativity.

Best wishes for a successful launch of this brilliant gathering of forward-thinking folks, Michael.

Thank you for putting this together. I am new to the faith and science dialog and am amazed the level and depth of interest. Here is my story.

There have been several times in my life when I have felt the need or call to publicly declare my faith in the God of the Bible and my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God’s Outrageous Universe, my web site, is one of those times.

Why Faith and Science? God has blessed my life with the opportunity to work with some of the great scientists of our times. He created in me an interest and ability to think about atoms and molecules (Ph.D. in Chemistry) and then the physical, life and geosciences. God provided the opportunity for me to know and work, as a young investigator, with people who had literally changed the world by synthesizing and identifying 12 trans-uranium elements on the periodic table. The Lord led me into education outreach and provided a career with opportunity to be part of national and state science education reforms and to enjoy knowing and working with hundreds of truly dedicated scientists, engineers and educators and especially many K-12 teachers. Finally God provided me with good health, resources, time and renewal of the Spirit to more fully serve Him in retirement.

I look foward to participating in this the on-line dialog and interaction provided by Evolutionary Christianity.

I, like Michael was raised Catholic – but there the path diverges; I gave up on religion. I’m on a path now that started when I was 5 – having visions and hearing things beyond 3-dimensional constructs. At 30 I started investigating psychic phenomena and other philosophical ideas; including other spritual paths – right now I’m studying Zen Koans. I first heard of Michael and Connie through Integral Life and other websites I applaud Michael and Connie.

Greetings to all! My name is Helen Lembeck and I’m a Medical Mission Sister based in Chula Vista, CA. Just heard of this series and I’m looking forward to taking part in it. Thanks so much for offering it!

Hello, I am 54 year old woman, a lifelong Catholic Christian trying like crazy to let go of my ego and live in the moment. What I don’t understand is that this whole subject seems to have been made so complex. I don’t get it. God created it all. Where else would the universe have come from? Why couldn’t God have been at the center of evolution? Like I said, I don’t understand the complexity. Will be anxious to hear what all these scholars and religious leaders have believe and have to say.

I’m impressed by the agenda and the line-up of contributors. I’m eagerly expecting that the series will reject the irrational fundamentalist approach to Scripture but I hope that, in doing so, it also manages to celebrate the many spiritual riches that are to be found there. The intersect between knowledge and faith is both tricky and exciting. Go for it!

I am a United Methodist pastor who was a mathematics major, chemistry minor in college. I have always been interested in the debates between science and religion. It is time for some of the people in the faith to quit insisting that we all check our brains at the door in order to be considered Christian. The church has frequenly looked very bad when it has dabbled in issues of science. Let’s appreciate both of these disciplines and learn to live together.

I’m a journalist who has been on a journey (and still am). So far, my journey has included caring for a disabled child, becoming chronically ill, beginning to study microbiology and immunology, discovering the active contemplative life, blogging, and now recovering and writing again. The depth of the riches of God’s created world is phenomenal! Looking forward to these conversations!

I grew up in a very conservative Christian environment. That was not what I was interested in and so was away from corporate worship experiences for 33 years. In 1999 I returned but yet again to a very conservative experience. After my husband’s death in 2004, I joined a new denomination where I have been thrilled to have a much broader view of the world and religion. Because I am now disabled I have a lot of time to read and have enjoyed a wide variety of philosophies and theological viewpoints. I am looking forward to this seminar experience, even though I’ve never experienced this kind of computerized study opportunity.

After serving as a United Methodist pastor for 38 years, I have been retired for 6 months. I am a contemplative that finds words to be a distraction most of the time. Both of my parents were in the medical field (physician and nurse). Evolution and faith were always ‘at home’ together as I grew up. I am disturbed by the anger and lack of civility in our world today, the way we put each other in boxes by immediately judging what we like, don’t like, etc. Listening to another with compassion is very important to me. I am not completely sure that I will be able to stay with all the words throughout this whole experience but I have enough curiosity to begin! Thank you for offering this opportunity for us to listen and speak.

Thank you for this. I work as a Hospice Chaplain for a large hospital in Los Angeles for people who have chosen to pass away at home. I was ordained a Buddhist nun by HH the Dalai Lama 25 years ago. Most of the people I work with are Christians so I read scripture and say Christian prayers all the time. My chaplaincy training was with Christians and Jews of different denominations. Patients facing end of life often have many faith questions and there is a gap between the views of the faithful and the atheist. At end of life the layer of pretense is mostly nil and I wish to keep learning so I can be there more appropriately for them.

Hi I am very excited about this opportunity. I was a philosophy major way back in the day with a strong theology courseload as well at Marquette University back in the 70s. Then I became a physical therapist – a philosopher/scientist. This is a subject that is near and dear to my heart. I cannot wait…

I am born and raised a Roman Catholic presently in self imposed exile from the church. I belong to a spiritual group of like minded seekers called Ruah who meet weekly to pray, dance,sing and explore together the spiritual lessons to be found in the universe and our place in that. We have been influenced in this and deepened ourselves into the thinking and the dream of Thomas Berry, have used Joanna Macy to journey for a year and are now back with Brian Swimme whose Universe as a Green Dragon gave us two years of exploring together and we are now absorbed in the Universe Story.
I am a retired elementary teacher presently self employed. I now am a teacher of Dr. Eugene Gendlin’s Focusing. He is a world renowned philosopher/psychologist whose work is making a huge mark on the world at present, as we find truth and scripture as such written into the marrow of our very bones and every cell of our bodies. Bio-Spirituality is also what I teach and this comes from Focusing. My two teachers in this are Ed Mc Mahon and Peter Campbell (Catholic priests) who were my first introduction to how we have the ability to tune into our individual human development as an activity of evolution, back in the early ’80′s, through the practice of Focusing. They have recently published their latest book called Rediscovering the Lost Body-Connection within Christianity subtitled The Missing Link for Experiencing Yourself in the Body of the Whole Christ is a Changing Relationship to Your Own Body. These two titles say very well what I teach in my workshops. This is where I am in my personal growth journey and the reason I am excited to be involved in this particular course offering.

I am a UCC layperson with a long history of “God fascination.” I am the child of two religious naturalists who influenced me strongly; Aldo Leopold and Loren Eiseley were household names when I was growing up. For many years I was an active Episcopalian, and I learned and grew in those churches. I have been involved in the Emergent conversation for several years and am grateful to Shane Claiborne, Spenser Burke and Brian Mclaren (and many others, too numerous to mention) for supporting my spiritual growth.

I owe much to the adult seminar at my church, First United Church of Tampa, UCC — and our excellent facilitator David Elliott — for their encouragement and support in my ongoing journey toward greater reality and gracefulness.

One of my passions is interfaith dialogue. I truly believe that The Great Story is large enough to provide the umbrella believers can use to come together. For this I am ever grateful to Connie Barlow and Michael Dowd who have sacrificed so much to amplify this story.

I look forward to this special Advent experience. May it bear the sweetest of fruit in the lives of participants and emanate out into the forlorn, waiting, watching, wondering world around us….

I am an artist/musician/actor in Vancouver B.C., who is curious as to what sort of synaptic/interweb connections will come of this series…

I have just finished reading “The Disappearance of the Universe”, which is essentially a primer for ACIM (A Course In Miracles”). I found it to be a fascinating read, and I am inclined to believe it holds some valuable clues as to how to wake up, as it were. However, I’m struggling back and forth between the cosmology it espouses (that we wanted to experience an existence apart form our Creator, and we we collectively created this cosmos and now inhabit it in a dream state, believing we are apart from God. This Universe is a corrupt illusion we made, and we need to come back to our senses through the intervention of Christ and Spirit, and realize that we never left Heaven, we’re just dreaming this world)…

…and the one that Michael Dowd and countless others have presented (that the cosmos is alive, sacred, and has become aware of itself through our eyes).

My name is Sandy. I am a child of God. With all the credentials posted here, I hesitate to sign in! I am so impressed by the good people who will be participating in this wonderful venture.
For many years I have practiced contemplative prayer, and have been Roman Catholic for the last part of my life, coming from the Episcopal church which well prepared and formed me. Presently I am about to receive a Masters’ Degree in Theological Studies from the University of Dallas. I am a child of God who is blessed, and led by the Holy Spirit to be a part of this discussion. Thank you for sharing this with us in this way. Some of my heroes/sheroes are Richard Rohr, Thomas Keating, Joan Chittister, Joyce Rupp, always Thomas Merton, and my patron saint, Mary Magdalene.

I am a paleobiologist and biology professor at a public university in California as well as president of a local skeptics/secular humanist/free-thinkers group. I was raised in an evangelical family, but have since moved away from that and am non-religious. However, I am very interested in this issue and looking forward to hearing what your panelists have to offer.

Thank you so very, very much for putting this together. I have been a life-long learner and student of religion/spirituality and science and have listened to many, many talks from different sources, but I am overjoyed that FINALLY we have a Christian perspective being brought up. I prayed to find something that would do this and then this info came to my email box. Thank you. God, for the answered prayers!!
Many blessings to you and I look forward to hearing more in the future!

Back in the seventies, I was hitchhiking across the Nullarbor Plain talking with my host about the deeper questions of life, meaning and the universe in that rare unihibited way that people on the road cherish so much. From Kimba in South Australia to Mullewa in Western Australia for well over 1000 miles (1500 kilometres) we spoke freely about truthseeking and being true with openings into various understandings of religion, science, philosophy and their interconnections.

Now in 2010, my life journey is stepping along various paths towards more integrative realisations that respect the diversities of our human condition.

I am grateful to Ken Wilber, Sean Esbjorn-Hargens, Mark Forman and their associates at Integral Institute, Integral Life, JFK University, Fielding University, Journal of Integral Theory and Practice and other integrally informed enterprises for their extraordinary creativity in their ongoing efforts to build better integral theories of everything that integrate the levels of human development across individual subjective experience and objective behaviours, and collective intersubjective cultures and interobjective systems.

I am grateful to Mark Edwards, Markus Molz, and various interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary theorists and practitioners at the Institute for Integral Studies, Integral Review, Integral Leadership Review and Metanexus for their efforts to establish the scientific discipline of integral meta-studies.

I am grateful to Michael Dowd, Bruce Sanguin, Tom Thresher and other integrally informed Christians for their efforts to see the virtues of faith, hope and charity become more alive in Christian and non-Christian lives.

I am grateful for this current initiative that will allow me to better understand the Who, How, What, Why, When, Where of evolutionary Christianity in the second decade of the 21st century.

I first heard you at a Unity Southeast Regional meeting a few years ago and you inspired and excited me. I look forward to more of the same. The time is now and we are the ones to push the God envelope wider and deeper…to infinity and beyond. Count me in!

I am grateful to be among a group of people who want to do something positive, and not simply complain about the way things have degenerated in our world. I hope to learn some powerful persuasions that will help my nearly adult children see that God and science/technology are not separate. Everything in the universe is part of the One. Thank you, Michael and Connie, for making this possible.

I am a 79 year old lifelong Catholic, the only one left in my family or among my friends. I have never had trouble with seeing evolution as another expression of God or Spirit, but I don’t know how to defend my views. I need to hear theological discussion which doesn’t happen to me any more. I hope that some day women priests will bring a humanity to the Church which is now lacking. I’m a retired English professor currently being refreshed by teaching, reading aloud, and writing poetry. I live a synchronous life on a beach in Florida with God ever present.
Peace, Anne

Dear Ann,
There is a true apostolic catholic church that ordains women. If you’re open to exploration, look up the Ecumenical Catholic Communion and check us out! We have several communities in Florida although I’m not sure exactly where you live. As far as I know, none of our communities in FL yet have a female priest, but the ECC is very open and does ordain women (I am one. About 20% of our priests are women, thus far.) We also have many former Roman Catholic priests who have incardinated into the ECC, most of whom are married now with families and living out their priesthood. Blessings, M-J+
Martha-Junia+Rogersmartha@sbcglobal.net
St. Junia’s House, Anaheimhttp://www.stjuniashouse.com

” Many have even resigned themselves to thinking that real freedom and joy (the peace that passes all understanding) isn’t even possible on this side of death.”

This sentence speaks to my yearning to help these souls, who like myself, felt as if I was in hell even though I was raised Southern Baptist and later ministered in a Pentecostal church. I’ve enjoyed Religious Science and Unity teachings and have a Masters of Divinity. My family remains staunch Southern Baptists so there is always tension and a felt breach in the relationship.

Reconciling Biblical doctrine with “spiritual science” is my passion and I am excited and looking forward to the series as well as reading your book. I just learned of you through Craig Hamilton and his work.
Thank you so much for your good work!

This is going to be great for me… As a child I was mesmerized by fossil fish … I’ve never been able to follow scientific pathways in a formal sense, so as a senior citizen now you are providing a bit of what has been missing all these years. As a poet your series will open many avenues of understanding for me.
In gratitude, Merrill

I have had an ongoing interest in the spiritual aspects of evolution and cosmology. The first book I tackled was Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s The Phenomenon of Man. Finding it very difficult I gathered a few people to share their understandings of the book. It was my first venture in bringing people together to share a common vision and tasks. Since that time I have met Brian Swimme and read The Universe Story also co-authored by Thomas Berry.
For decades I have belonged to a group called The Thomas More Centre. Members basically come from a Christian background. Many of us have raised our children at the same time and helped each other in a variety of ways.
I don’t intend to go on and on so I will leave it like that for the moment!
Pete

Thank you to the organizers for providing this opportunity during this time of preparation for the coming of the Cosmic Christ into our hearts, world and universe. I am a Roman Catholic 54 year old woman spending a quiet year.

“Evolutionary Christian” – it almost sounds like an internal contradiction. We are going to find out. The link to this program was forwarded by a friend in Toronto – that’s what friends do!

I was born in Calgary Alberta, and raised as a super-catholic – going to church twice on Sundays and doing the Knights of the Altar gig until I was in high school. I entered the Oblate (OMI) novitiate in 1965, began a pastoral year in Peru in 1972 where I was ordained as a deacon, and then returned to Peru after ordination as a priest in 1974.

In Peru I was fortunate to join a priest movement that tried to use the Theology of Liberation methodology in the pastoral work – it was a unique experience that was formative and influenced the rest of my life. In 1980 I “retired” from the clergy gig and went into teaching in the Catholic school system of Toronto. Teaching is one of the things that I found most fulfilling in Peru, but in Toronto I could teach and also get married. I jumped at the first chance for early retirement in 2004 and moved to Vancouver Island living for a while on a family farm (to discover that a background in education does not translate easily into the life of a farmer). We now live in a peaceful community known as Saltair and I participate in the solidarity work of groups such as CORPUS, KAIROS, Xristos Community Society (through whom I have a marriage license), and MIJPME (Mid-Islanders for Justice and Peace in the Middle East) which is primarily concerned about the plight of the Palestinian people and the consequences of the Nakba.

I am somewhat churchless at the present and not looking for more. I am excited by the thoughts of persons like Brian Swimme – having sat through a video series Canticle of the Cosmos and feeling I could watch it 20 times and still not grasp all of what is offered. It also makes me think that my years in the seminary were a waste of time – but I recognize that it was not supposed to make one think too deeply but rather to be able to play the role of the clergy.

Hi, I’m John –
I found out about this teleseminar from the Center for Action and Contemplation website. I have been a listener, admirer, and somewhat of a “mentee” of Richard Rohr since 1984. His tapes, words and presence have been a gift which has led me through much spiritual growth. I have been wanting to find something a little “different” as an Advent practice this year, and this conference came along. Looks like my “Father” is leading me again……..

I’m an Episcopalian lay leader and have followed many of the teachers and writers involved in this project over the years. I had the opportunity to participate in The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry’s Scripture and Skepticism Conference a few years back in Davis, California. My husband is a nuclear physicist, and we’ve had many conversations about the convergence of God and science. I look forward to learning more and “listening” to the conversation in this forum. What a gift to all of us. Thank you.

I am a meditation instructor/reiki practitioner – also very involved in inner city ministry through the United Church of Canada. I am interested in everything that would help us get closer to what Jesus was really talking about (and living), as I strongly feel that we’ve been missing the point in the last 2000 years or so. I look forward to any dialogue that will move us away from either/or thinking and am very hopeful.

I am a mother of three, two grown daughters and a young son at home with us. I am a business owner and a former student of Philosophy, with some post graduate work. I am struck by the words of the great physicist Niels Bohr, “The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false. The opposite of a great truth is also true.” I have reached a place in my understanding where I do not perceive a conflict between a scientific experience of our World and a religious or spiritual experience of our World, and I am fascinated that Truths are perceived in manifold ways. I would like to see our human institutions and traditions deepen more into this understanding. I am delighted to see this forum come together. Thank you!

I am a Catholic, Native American laywoman from Seattle and this looks good. Last year, for a fund raiser for an spiritual organization I’ve been a part of, I brought together a Presbyterian theologian and a spiritual but not religious scientist to discuss our responsibility to the earth and what is going on with the planet. It was remarkable how well the presentations went together and it was a wonderful evening. I look forward to being informed and inspired by the presentations. Thank you for inviting me.

A “recovering fundamentalist” who lives in the shadow of creationist-committed Liberty University (Lynchburg, Virginia), I teach at public James Madison University. I have recently begun conducting a science appreciation course based on students’ historical role-playing: the trial of Galileo and the more recent Kansas Board of Education rewriting of science standards.

I have taken advantage of my neighbors’ commitments by attending a local week-long Answer in Genesis conference and arranging a “pulpit exchange” (or “hostage exchange”?) in which the director of Liberty’s Institute for Creation Research [sic] and I visited and spoke in each others’ classes.

Active in my local Baptist congregation, I have twice led community-wide ecumenical (Christian and Jewish) celebrations of Evolution Weekend, one featuring a public lecture by John Haught, and continue to support the Clergy Letter Project.

I wasn’t able to schedule Michael when he was last in Virginia, but I would be delighted to identify resources who might meet with students and faculty on our campus.

Taz,
You are a brave man! I cannot imagine what it must be like to go into the classrooms at Liberty University! How do the students deal with you? Awesome work that you are doing!

I lived in Lynchburg for a few months in 1964-65 and had exposure to Jerry Falwell and his church. It was a traumatic time in my life and the experience there certainly made it worse. I would describe myself as a recovered fundamentalist, living in God’s acceptance and love. Thank you for what you are daring to do!

The Liberty students were not only unmoved but also rather dismissive of a fellow Christian who had “a different opinion” but clearly didn’t have “the truth.” It was to laugh when one seriously asserted there was “not one bit of evidence” for evolution, and another equated the current persecution of YEC’s with what Nazi’s did to Jews. It troubles me that these graduates will be licensed to teach in our public schools, and many feel a calling to “evangelize” there.

This series looks like a challenge to me; I hope to be open to hearing many different things and asking many questions of myself. This is not my ordinary approach to preparing for Christmas, that’s for sure. Basic info about me is 60 years of age; married for 41 of those;raised five beautiful and blessed children; and gained insight into “immortality” when first grandchild was born. It doesn’t get any better than that!
Find myself in love with each new day.
Namaste

I am a scientist/educator (PhD in Bio-organic Chemistry) who recently retired after 19 years as a chemistry and physics teacher at the Sidwell Friends School (Quaker) in Washington, DC. Two extra-curricular themes in my teaching were the need for humans to understand our emerging role in the evolution of both planet earth’s climate and ecosystems and that science and religion are not in conflict but represent two independent paths to TRUTH. It may be worth noting that many Quaker educators, myself included, view the classroom as sacred space.

On a sabbatical in 2002 I was fortunate to attend classes at Georgetown University that were given by John Haught who is one of your 30 presenters. His presence on this program is enough to get me to register at this busy time of year.

My wife and I are life-long Catholics who worship with a lay-run Intentional Eucharistic Community (NOVA) in Northern Virginia. We look forward to participating in this path-breaking series and thank Michael Dowd for his inspired leadership.

I used to debate “Creationism” with people long ago and now I do the opposite.. always from a Christian angle. I have found my place in (good) science and (good) faith now and am looking forward to these talks very very much. Thanks for the invite. – Peter

I bring a varied past to this conversation.
In 1968 I lived in San Francisco. I once sat on stage and shared a bottle of Bourbon with Janis Joplin. By 1970 I took Buddhist vows and spent 10 years as a graphic designer and personal bodyguard to my Tibetan spiritual leader. This study of meditation and spiritual discipline has informed my path to the present.
After the death of my Tibetan Spiritual Friend I reinvented myself and became a professional paleontologist. For many years I was self-employed in paleontological resource land management. Since childhood I had always wanted to be a scientist and it was fun to actually realize that dream.
During this, scientific, period I joined the United Methodist Church. While on a men’s retreat, during the Eucharist, I experienced mystical union with Jesus. This life changing moment called me to many years in prison ministry.
The current economic reality left me divorced, I lost my career, and I left the Methodist church.
I’m now a part of a faith community called The Refuge.
I come to this conversation as a Buddhist, paleontologist, mystic, and follower of the living Jesus Christ.

The first time I heard the expression “The Cosmic Christ” was 20 years ago when I picked up Teilhard De Chardin’s “The Divine Milieu.” I subsequently continued to read most of his books as I was fascinated and greatly inspired by his belief in non dualistic thinking. Then, a few weeks ago, I was very fortunate to hear Richard Rohr speak in Princeton, NJ which resonated so much of DeChardin’s basic thoughts i.e., science and theology can coexist as one.
I look forward to this upcoming broadcast and the possibilities of furthering my understanding of these two fascinating subjects.
Thank you Michael for bringing this to so many of us who long for further enlightenment.

Michael – Thanks for your great book. It was such an inspiration and help for the book I was working on.
We seem to share the same story and dates 1979 & 1988 for our respective stories of the born again experience and “second awakening”
I tell my story in my website: http://www.muzicindi.net

I find the interrelations between scientific and spiritual truth fascinating, particularly those that go deeper than the superficial “one way or the other” / conflict model that is perpetuated in our society. I find myself hovering around the cusp of evangelical Lutheranism and Methodist churches after a journey with Unitarian Universalism and the UCC and still listen to echoes and new chords from my Catholic beginnings ….

I’m a Catholic boy who pursued biology and ran smack dab into a need to resolve Genesis and the truth of evolution during graduate school (MS-Botany) in a part of the U.S. where creationism has a persistent foothold. The expansive perspectives of some combination of Joseph Campbell, Gandhi, and Stephen Jay Gould showed me a way through which led me to UUism and the UCC. Life circumstances brought me to a “born again / humbling / surrender” experience in 2007 that brought re-incorporation of a personal relationship with Christ into my life, but this time within a scientifically-informed synthesis … a blend of faith and reason that can’t be reduced into component parts. Exposure to Teilhard de Chardin during undergraduate years also came back into full view.

A few years ago, as a statement of my new synthesis (one that doesn’t pretend to have it all figured out as both extremes of the science/humanist and fundamentalist camps pretend to do), I actually had been contemplating purchasing a Christian fish and a Darwin fish and pasting them on my vehicle mouth-to-mouth … then I came upon a certain book that had beaten me to the punch!

I resonate deeply with attempts to synthesize truth, and Michael’s book and this series are right down the strike zone. Blessed are we to live in a post-Darwinian world where we can better see through a glass darkly and yet simultaneously more fully wonder at (be awed and humbled by) the “face-to-face” mysteries beyond all mysteries … Exciting, inspiring, soul-waking stuff!

My intro is to say that my background includes religion (Roman Catholic), now recovered after leaving the Church. I am a physicist, teacher and artist. I follow a shaman’s path today, and currently involved in creating “structured” water and teaching how to protect ground water. Also researching the Mayan Calendar. My heritage is metis, Native American (Salinas Mission Indian, Pima and Mayan. Also French, German and Spanish Basque.

I look forward to hearing from others and to add my experience to this mix of participants.

I believe that Religion, Academia and Science are all in trouble. Meaning that some are educated beyond the ability to change with new information.

But I have faith that mankind can become human.

Most of mankind are unconscious of being incompetent. While some are conscious of being incompetent but do not know how to make the jump into being conscious of being competent. If selfless in intent… becoming human is easy for we are wired to become human.

Humans are unconscious of being competent; thus tend to be less arrogant of being a great thinker. We are Consciousness observing consciousness.

Mankind tends to be arrogant and self serving. Humans just are because they are connected to their non local Mind (meaning soul-spirit consciousness). The mind is approached through the heart. The mind is not the brain. The brain is the hard drive of the body.

I’m a Benedictine Oblate (lay Benedictine), questioning Catholic and Earth lover (some would say tree-hugging hippy!) from the United Kingdom. I’ve never had any problem with the marriage of science and belief, but the particular brand of creationist fundamentalism you have in the States is not so widespread here.

I love words, learning and reflection, so looking forward very much to this teleseries.

My story is much like Dowd’s. I grew up in a Christian commune, and loved biology, but was firmly committed to Literal Creationism all through high school and the first two years of college. But I first changed my theology, through Intervarsity, learning to see that the Bible wasn’t entirely literal. That freed me up to accept the biology that I was studying at the same time.

Since then I have been impressed and amazed at how biology and Christianity dovetail. I am no longer so interested in trying to prove that evolution is correct, as much as trying to see how evolution and Christianity can illuminate each other. I now believe that following Christ can not be done fully with out an understanding of evolution, and evolution makes the most sense within the Christian paradigm.

I have been a family physician for 30 years in Perth Western Australia. As a preschooler I was immersed in the orthodox tradition. In later years Methodist and Uniting Church framed my adolescence in high school. At University the wondrous and complex study of biology and medical sciences made the theology I had been exposed to seem infantile. Middle age brought on the usual crises and I was brought back to faith by the franciscan Richard Rohr and also Paramahansa Yogananda. The latter really reignited my Christian faith and has provided me with a spiritual practice that I can follow daily. By showing the similarities between the ancient Hindu scriptures and the jewish christian bible Yogananda has shown me how to go deep into my own tradition and at the same time honour and learn from the teachings of the east. I believe that the church is truly evolving whether it wants to or not

I’m a retired physician. I’m happy to have the opportunity to hear and possibly to share about how God ” did it”. I think this type of discussion can and very naturally leads one to contemplation as opposed to “knowing the facts”..

Born 3 Jan 1935, Nottingham UK. Brought up as a Primitive Methodist but converted to evangelic atheist in my early teens. In 1969, much troubled by alcoholism, I began attending Quaker Meetings for Worship. Even so my road pointed downhill until 1977 when I had a remarkable spritual experience that ended my drinking and has since transformed my life. Spiritual growth is now my primary aim.

I look forward to the programme organized by Evolutionary Christianity. It is much needed.

Michael and Connie,
As always, thank you both for this work. I am looking forward to the hours spent with other like minded folks who are committed to disolving the illusionary barriers between spirituality and the physical realities of life.

Like so many of us who are finding each other on this journey, I believe that as these false barriers are deconstructed, the possibility of what Jesus called the coming Kingdom of God/Heaven opens to us…but not through an external God that acts on the world, but from the creative presence of life and love that finds an opening through the individual and collective hearts and minds of humankind.
Thanks again, Michael. I am glad to support you and Connie in this work and look forward to seeing you again in Omana on Evolutionary weekend in Feb, 2011.
Blessings
Barry

This will be new for me, but I have been introduced to a new way of being through O’Murchu’s writings and now participating in a program at Springbank Eco-Spirituality and the Arts in S.C. I want to learn and be a voice to participate in understanding Mother Earth.

Henry Kovacevic (43) of Melbourne, Australia here. Thrilled to have discovered this initiative. Thanks to Michael and all who are making it happen.

I’m a 20+ year devotee of the great seer, Richard Rohr. I’m also one of the many ‘spiritually curious’, who for too long, have been frustratingly observing the so called ‘only game in town’ of ‘science-rejecting creationism vs faith-rejecting atheism’. Hopeful this series of talks reveals new vistas for a religious (re-aligning) life of action and contemplation. It’s another scary junction in the road, but I’m puttin’ my faith in th ‘road less travelled’…

Peace and best wishes from Melbourne, Australia
Henry Kovacevic
“Religion is not a dirty word” – anon

I so appreciate your journey Michael I grew up in a fundamentalist church, made my way to Colgate University where I was introduced to a progressive view of Christianity. I couldn’t make the leap of faith then and eventually became a pastor in the Free Methodist Church. I was always more liberal than my colleagues, more focused on justice and grace.

Going through a divorce 6 years ago and an introduction to Emergent Christianity by my friend and Professor Robert Webber has put me on a path of discovery and re-discovery. I am now an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and work in a brand new organization (The Center for Progressive Renewal) that is providing training and resources to start new faith communities and re-new those in decline. I am very excited to see my friends Brian and Doug on the roster of speakers for this series.

I was privileged to hear Michael speak at Unity Church in Charlottesville, VA. several years ago. I was so thrilled at the message he brought and how he explained creation in alignment with God. I am a nature person and have always felt a strong connection with all things around me. God is in everything! And–yes, He is still creating. So exciting!

I am looking forward to this series and know I will learn more about this subject as the messages are presented.

Hello, everyone. I’m a retired Presbyterian minister, Benedictine Oblate Candidate, and spiritual healer, teacher, and writer at work on a book about the hidden way for serious seekers on the Christian path. Have followed the science and religion/spirituality dialogue for many years and am delighted to find familiar faces among the speakers and the community. Blessings to all from Chapel Hill, NC!

It was with great joy that I read of Michael’s recovery to good health. He (and Connie) have been in my prayers since I learned of his illness. I know their work did not stop during his struggle.

I first met them when they were the presenters at The 25th Annual John B. Wolf Lecture at All Souls Unitarian Church in Tulsa, April 2006. They have been back several times. I was so impressed with their itinerant evolutionary ministry. I am a (retired) chemist and the word symbiotic comes to mind when I think of their work.

I love the symbolism of the Great Story Beads and have taught classes / workshops to the senior high kids and to the women’s group at church. Some pictures are on The Great Story website.

I have used the Templeton prize winners as one of the sources for my spiritual reading. It will be a treat to hear them address the topic (as well as the speakers from non-scientific disciplines that I am not as familiar with). I live in Oklahoma (the reddest state in the union) and often feel that I have to work pretty hard to stay in touch with religious / scientific enlightenment. So extra gratitude to Michael and Connie in this venture. I am really looking forward to it. Peace, Love and Joy to you both. (And looking forward to your return to Tulsa next summer.)

Professor emerita philosophy, senior scholar at Institute of Aging and Public Policy at Mt. St. Mary College, Newburgh, N Y (USA). – just back from UNESCO meeting in Paris about women philosophers.

Have long thought that the divisions between science that theology/spirituality was a result of the institution of universities in Middle Ages since they divided subjects into faculties, schools etc.
Before that there was a greater integration eg. Hildegaard of Bingen,, St. Bernard encouraging his monks to study the trees since they would find God there.

I am a retired teacher in theology and ethics, currently serving as a faciliatator for a bereaved parents group in a grief center where I live. Methodist for all my life and still trying to continue to find myself there.

I think “the church” is hungry for this dialogue including what we are learning with our minds , what our souls know to be true without proof. and what our hearts want so desperiately to go into action to help.

Our retreat house here in florida is an eco based Catholic center where as Father Rohr, a spiritual mentor of mine has said on more than a few occasions, if you do not see God in everything then you fail to see him in anything. Our emphasis here at the Open Gate as brothers and sisters of charity entwines the Fransican, Benedictine and Celtic Chrisitan views of life and rhythms that your work and this endeavor touch in a deep and meaningful way.

We pray that all listen with more than their ears and see with more than just their eyes and truly feel the heartbeat of creation within their own hearts. You are revealing what many deep in the recesses of their spirit already know to be ground truth

I’m an artist and meditation facilitator with a Pentacostal Christian background. I’ve been deeply influenced by the work of Neil Douglas-Klotz who was an early student of Matthew Fox. I’m really immersed in this type of evolutionary work as the images we carry have a lot to do with spiritual evolution. I’m always interested in hearing what the influential are saying and looking forward to hearing the dialogues.

This is a great idea and I cannot think of a better place to share it. I am a Lutheran (ELCA) pastor whose undergraduate work is in botany. Integration of evolution and spirituality have been a source of ongoing challenge for me.

Recently started reading “The Monkey Bible” – an interesting allegory. Was tuned in to this webinar because of my connection to Richard Rohr’s books and the Center for action and contemplation.

I am glad that we can discuss this subject as it should be – within the milieu of spirituality.

So much that I identify with in the late 60′s and early 70′s I came back to my faith through 12 step fellowship. I think these fellowships have alwaysw had a struggle between spirtuality and medical science. I look foward to these broadcast!!

The mention of this series in the CAC e-news caught my attention. Next month I’m taking an adult education course on The Creation of the Universe and the Evolution of the Earth with topics such as the Big Bang, the forces of nature, elementary particles, the current universe using Hubble’s deep field view, dark energy, dark matter, string theory, CERN and others. What a great synchronicity! Providential in fact.

I’ve never believed there needs to be a conflict between science and religion and I find it disconcerting that it seems to exist, persistently so, in our world. This series is a welcome illumination on that area of misunderstanding.

I have little to none of the credentials of many of you have who have written before me. Let me suffice it to say I am a lover of Christ, come from a background of long term spiritual abuse from past church, have found the contemplative way recently, and am discovering God in a way I have never seen before. I am very excited for this series, and anticipate the discussions, learning, and opportunity to grow.

Hello, I am excited about this series! I have always felt/known that there really is no difference between science and religion – that both sides have the same questions and simply just form their answers differently, yet I cant really point to many specifics. I am very much looking foward to learning from the group you have gathered together.

Raised basically atheist, even though we never called it that, my father talked about a Creative Force that holds all things together.
Six years ago at age 45 I was baptized in the Roman Catholic church and have been evangelizing in one way or another ever since I came up out of the water.

I read about this seriers via Richard Rohr’s Center for Radical Grace emails. I am an amateur artist, writer, and have a day job as administrative assistant in a country club.

I’m a sister of mercy of 60 years, a spiritual companion and retreat-giver, interested in all thing scientific and spiritual. I am drawn to this series for the expansion of my own consciousness.
Rachelle Harper rsm

Hello, I’m looking forward to the talks. I have had a lifelong interest in both science and religion. I was a veterinarian for 20+ years, returned to school (seminary) and received a Master of Divinity degree. Now I am involved in campus ministry. I find it very sad that some folks think they must choose between their religious faith or accepting modern science. I think it is important to help people recognize that ultimately there is no divide between the two.

Hi. I am a palaeoanthropologist by training and have been a Christian since 1977. I have always felt that my walk with God should include all of God’s creation and that we should never shy away from what the world tells us about it. I have studies human origins for the past thirty years and am convinced that evolution best explains not just the biological history of the animals and plants around us but our own history, guided by the hand of the Lord.

Thank you, Michael, for putting this series together. It looks very interesting.

I am a lawyer, with an undergraduate degree in physics. My mother became a Catholic when I was four, and I became a Catholic at fifteen. My father believed in God but was uncomfortable with organized religion. My family and I have spent the last forty years in a small intentional eucharistic community (NOVA) in the Washington, DC area.

God is awesome, and the still unfolding cosmos is remarkable testimony to the project we are graced to participate in. Christ is with us on this journey, and the Incarnation is a seamless part of this unfolding. We often think of evolution in biological terms, but biology is only part of this continuing drama.

And we are not alone. On large scales, the cosmos is isotropic. If we suppose that the reason for being of the universe is that a loving God is sharing existence with beings who are independent, who are able to comprehend this marvel of existence, and who are able to love one another, thereby imaging God, it becomes clear from sheer size of the cosmos that there are other civilizations of sentient beings, probably numbering in the tens or hundreds of billions. The Incarnation experience from this loving God of ours is not unique to planet Earth.

I see your project as a part of our struggle to comprehend this marvel of existence. It is a worthy effort, and you deserve thanks.

Thank you Michael and Company — I am most interested in sharing with you all the talks re Evolutuionary Christianity andI look forward to receiving them. I’m an Anglican living near the beach overlooking the Indian ocean in South Africa; the time difference will mean I’ll be a ‘follower’. Thank you all very much — blessings on your sharing

Thank you Michael for hosting this wonderful gift, bringing a universal community together via the web. I am a damaged and recovering Christian fundamentalist living and recovering in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. I am a passionate photographer, gardener and hospice caregiver. I anticipate that my own universe will be expanded even more as we birth Kairos together; quantum physics at it’s best.

I am an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and lead a group of commited disciples in Hudson, Ohio who are seeking to understand God’s “Still Speaking” voice in our time through a progressive understanding of the Bible and theology. We have studied together for five years using guides such as “Living the Questions”, Marcus Borg’s “Reading the Bible again for the First Time, and “Experiencing the Heart of Christianity.” I am looking forward to this exciting series!

I am a United Church of Christ pastor, D. Min. and Ph.D., author of “Life as Pilgrimage: A View from Celtic Spirituality.” I’ve read both of Michael Dowd’s books and recommend “Thank God for Evolution” frequently – read a lot of others on progressive Christianity, appreciate quantum physics and chaos theory, etc. I wonder why so many old white guys? Particularly, why the absence of Judy Cannato, author of “Radical Amazement” and “Field of Compassion”? very readable, accessable books.

I am painfully aware of the paucity of female voices in this first conversation series.

The original plan was to have 14 guests and I invited 7 women. But four declined (for a variety of reasons) and the guys…well, they just kept coming out of the woodwork!

I hope to do something similar next Advent and, if I do, yes, I promise that I’ll work much harder to ensure that more women are featured. There are some fabulous ones in this movement, to be sure. (I agree, Judy Cannato would be perfect for this, but from what I understand she’s struggling with a serious bout of cancer at the moment.)

I’m a psychologist and very happy in the Episcopal Church. I’m going back to school to get my M.Div in January. I’m also a cancer survivor, now four years cancer free. My church just finished an adult education series on science and Christianity that I was very interested in but not able to attend. Like many here, I heard about this program through CAC. I think this subject is very important and am so glad I have chance to participate in this program.

Already this is a great gift! I’m a teacher and a molecular biologist who regularly runs into the creationist/evolutionist conflict in the things my students already “know” when they come into the classroom. In trying to lead them to reconciliation and insight, I have often felt like the only voice calling out for understanding in the middle of a battlefield. Complicating that is my own responsibility to teach the curriculum of the public institutuion that employs me. Sometimes it is hard to remember that I teach biology, not theology. I love this idea. Well done CAC.

I am a retired pediatrician and a member of the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross, a community of Episcopal women called to a life of prayer, transformation and reconciliation within ourselves, our faith communities and the whole creation. I recently completed a Masters in Pastoral Ministry at Boston College and am interested in the development of intersections and shared ground where science and religion can be in dialogue rather than at odds with each other.
Thank you for the gift of this conversation.

Hi, i’m a little brown man in Asia seeking always for higher truths. I was born and raised as a Christian, experimented with a couple of yoga systems, and researched on Islam, Buddhism, and Taoism. Since I came across Evolutionary Spirituality through the web, I believe I have stumbled on the most significant, modern-day life perspective. But I am all alone in my small corner of the world, and helpless. I am a visual artist, writer, and curator. I desire so much to become a part of a community of evolutionary spiritualist. Am happy to get to know Michael Dowd. God bless you, Mike!

Phillip,
Welcome to this holy cyber community! I’m sure that as an aftermath of this Great Experiment of Michael Dowd’s, there will be a huge world-wide network to form and to encourage us all in the creative process. If you’re a visual artist, writer and curator, you have a window into God’s grand creativity that will open doors for others as well. Blessings, M-J+

I’ve been a christian for 45 years and have always been taught against evolution. Recently, I met some Atheists that challenged my beliefs and encourages me to look at some things but at the same time. I couldn’t deny my experiences and beliefs in a creator. This was posted on a free believers site and I wanted to check it out. In my heart, I’ve aways believed the earth was older than what fundamentalists and creationists said but didn’t know how to go about putting the two together. As I have changed in other ways, I wanted to relook at this as well. This will give me another opportunity to do so with other believers.

Thank you for providing this series. I am a Camaldolese Benedictine Oblate, and I am a Roman Catholic Woman Bishop; and as a woman bishop I am part of a growing movement and mission to ordain women to the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church. I have a deep interest in the wedding of science and religion/spirituality. Blessings to all who are laboring to provide this series. I will be on retreat at the monastery in Big Sur, CA for a few days, beginning tomorrow; and I will hold this series and all who participate in it, in my prayers.

Dear Carol,
Look up the Ecumenical Catholic Communion (ECC). Although there is no female bishop in Florida at the moment, there are several ECC communities and they are very open to ordaining women (of whom I am one, but, alas, I am in California). If you go to my website, there is a link to the ECC (of which I am a part), and you’ll find a directory of communities in Florida. Blessings,

There is a woman bishop, who is affiliated with Roman Catholic Women Priests and who lives part of the year in Florida and part of the year in Virginia. Her name is Bridget Mary Meehan. She has a blog. You can find her via Google. Presently, she is living in Florida.

Hi all,
My name is gerry and I am a practicing roman catholic who for a long time has found the diversity yet intricate balance of nature and evolution fascinating. I have often thought and tried to model truely random evolution, it just does not work.
A book that I found affirms and educates my view is “Probabilities Nature and Nature’s Probability” by Donald E Johnson.
I do not reduce everything to maths either and praise the sheer beauty of nature and evolution. For me it is clear that God guiding Spirit is at work while still respectful of the free will God granted to each of us.

Hi, I forgot to introduce myself. I am a Computer Scientist from Brazil. I live in Paris. I have studyied Computer Science, some Psychology, and Eastern Religions, as well as Cristianism. I mix Information and Knowledge Theory with religion. I have my own theory of informationa and knowledge. Every religion is made of Knowledge structures. I hope that we may get well and communicate easily.

I appreciate your sentiment, Andre. Personally, I use the word “faith” as a synonym for “trust” (which is almost the antithesis of “beliefs”). I fully agree that what former generations could only have beliefs about, we now have knowledge. But in many situations (like life in general) trust is still a worthwhile stance to take, it seems to me.

For me, language like “I have faith in God” translates as “I trust time” or “I trust reality”, or “I accept what’s so.”

To trust maybe dangerous. In the middle ages, many trusted in the fact that the persons attached to ancient religions were devil worshipers, and burned them, more than 20.000. Devil was a hoax taken from the tribal stories of the Old Testment, By the image of Lucifer, which is actually egoism and greed. These are animal emotions. Only madmen end ignorants may have these kind of emotions.
After a certain level of culture, it is known that everything is just a perception of the mind. Then we get dettachment, wich is freedom and light.

I do not agree, insofar as I understand the statement, that “everything is just a perception of the mind.” Particularly as a science-and-technology educated person (PhD, Engineering Sciences), I am convinced to my bones that there is indeed a real world, independent of our perceptions — though no doubt perceivable or describable in an infinitude of truthful ways. Science is the process of producing an idea-structure that is a progressively less incomplete description of the single, real world. Religion or “faith” is not like that at all. Michael’s “trust” comes closer to the essence. And I like Langdon Gilkey’s language about being “grasped by ultimacy.” And then there is the the holy awe or “fear” described classically by Rudolf Otto, that links us with all the hundreds of thousands of years of pre-theological, pre-monotheistic religious experience.

“To trust may be dangerous.” Seems clear to me that to trust IS dangerous. To love, too. Everything worth doing is dangerous . . . .

I’m a retired lay woman and a former scripture and liturgy student in large eastern seminary. I do accept evolution but I would love to better explain and understand the hows, whys and wherefores to myself as well as to those who insist this “theory” is in error. Is this possible or am I fated to experience frustration when addressing the topic?

Greetings all and what an exciting opportunity to be in conversation with such wonderful people around this topic.

I am a pastoral theologian logging in from Louisville, Kentucky, in USAmerica. I serve as the Director of Online Learning and Publication for the Wayne E. Oates Institute located at http://www.oates.org and as Affiliated Faculty with the Doctor of Ministry Program at Drew University Theological School in Madison, New Jersey.

I like to think of the recumbent bicycle that I ride as symbolic of both my ecological commitments and my evolutionary perspectives.

Thanks, Michael, for hosting this event. I look forward to the conversation.

At the age of 72, I was called by the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Tupelo (MS) to serve as Lay Minister. The dogmatic belief that the word of the Bible was the only truth is why I left the Christian churches at a pre-pubescent age. I found The Tao while at the Institute of Far Eastern Languages at Yale in 1962 and have continued Taoist meditation ever since. Before I found the faith-blanket of UU, I called myself an “Occidental Taoist.” Within the UU body I still do affiliate with this Eastern tradition.

Fifty-eight years of meditation, reading and listening have convinced me that the process of evolution in no way conflicts with the faith group of Christianity, provided that the Christian looks at the words of the Bible in the context of the century when the specific book was written. The people of the first century of the “Christian” Era could not see stars, except super novae, beyond this galaxy they could only capture concepts of their times. As typical humans striving to be accepted by the culture they lived in they had to write things that by 21st century standards may not be quite factual.

Modern humans must remember that a spark of the First Thought lives within each of us and that spark is the very essence of why we are alive. That spark is what we share with every living thing, animal or vegetable. Perhaps a somewhat smaller spark is invested in every atom and molecule of the mineral domain.

I am very much looking forward to this series of discussions for the powerful potential for unity that they hold.

I’m honored to be a part of this gathering community. My work of connecting people to Earth’s wisdom as a spiritual path has been deeply influenced by the likes of Thomas Berry, Brian Swimme, and Michael Dowd. I’m really looking forward to the series of talks and to being a part of a lively discussion. Thank you for putting this on.

I was raised an atheist learning Darwin in school, became a born-again fundamentalist Christian in my 20′s and was exposed to Creation. I was then introduced to Intelligent Design while doing my post-doc in Berkeley after which I became disillusioned with both academia and fundamentalism. I then started reading J. Philip Newell and learned about Celtic Christianity and have finally landed somewhere in or near the emergent camp.

I currently write science books for kids and my aim is to teach kids the foundations for science (chemistry and physics starting in 1st grade) while allowing them to explore various “interpretative frameworks” for science. Creationism, Dawinism, Intelligent Design, Panspermia, etc. all of these “lenses” contribute to our overall understanding of science. I am not strictly any one of these labels and I see merit in all of them. I suppose I’d call myself an “omnianist” – someone who uses information from everywhere.

I am very keen on following this movement because I have been in the middle of mud fights over these issues from all sides and I see the division growing. I speak at Christian homeschool conferences and many families are “circling the wagons.” I also follow the NCSE and the NSTA and they too are “circling the wagons.”

My main concerns for Evolution are scientific, not theological. The “Great Story” as you call it is still an historical narrative and as such difficult to “prove” by scientific standards. I got excited by the possibility of some kind of rigorous scientific proof in Berkeley when it was announced that a group had kept a bacteria going for 600,000 generations, but was disappointed to find out it was still just the same bacteria. I am also curious about the newly discovered bacteria that metabolizes arsenic and how this may change the definition of life since it appears to need little to no phosphorus. Don’t get me wrong, I am still rooting for Evolution (the Great Story from the Big Bang on) but it needs to go from an historical narrative to empirical evidence.

I don’t think we have to sling mud at each other because different sides disagree. I do think we need to take seriously all opposing arguments because this, I believe, is our richest source of insight. I also don’t want to see this “great debate” morph into something banal and vanilla, so I am both curious and concerned about “Evolutionary Christianity.”

“The ‘Great Story’ as you call it is still an historical narrative and as such difficult to ‘prove’ by scientific standards . . . Don’t get me wrong, I am still rooting for Evolution (the Great Story from the Big Bang on) but it needs to go from an historical narrative to empirical evidence.”

Greetings! From where I sit, the idea that “historical narratives” are in a distinct class of scientific explanations, lacking “empirical evidence” and therefore uniquely feeble or dubious, is an unnecessary roadblock or misconception. In truth, there is nothing scientifically special about evidence-based narratives of unique past events, such as the formation of the Solar System, the evolution of horses, or the integration of retrovirus DNA into our own genome over evolutionary history. Whether we are constructing explanations of what happened 50 milliseconds ago inside a particle collider in Geneva, or 50 million years ago in Gondwanaland, the methods are the same: we make inferences from observables and subject them to various tests. E.g., is the inferred narrative falsifiable, and if so, does it survive attempts to falsify it? Is it fruitful of other inferences, observations, tests? Does it fit into the existing the knowledge structure and extend it? The reliability of the resulting narrative depends not on whether we can put our naked eye on any part of the process that we are explaining (you can’t see an electron any more than you can shake hands with the most recent common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees): what matters is that multiple, independent lines of evidence convergently support an explanation that stands, fits, and is fruitful. All of which the narrative of biological evolution does, just as much as any other major, interlocking, broad-based scientific narrative (e.g., the physics of stars).

Another way of looking at it:

All observations are of past events. The number of seconds or years involved makes no logical difference. A particle track in a cloud chamber is neither more or less “historical” than a dinosaur track in a bed of mudstone or a psuedogene in our DNA. Scientists follow tracks, is all. “Historical” sciences are not essentially different.

From where I sit historical sciences are very different from empirical sciences. I agree, all observations are past events but it makes a huge difference if those past events are seconds or millenia. Scientific events that occur in seconds or even years can be falsified. Scientific events that occur over millenia cannot. This is a huge difference when it comes to scientific verification. I agree that the methods are the same, but the outcomes are vastly different and so are how we interpret those outcomes.

I disagree that the narrative of biological evolution “stands,” “fits,” or “is fruitful.” Right now it is not a robust enough theory because it fits everything and therefore cannot explain anything. If you see two species diverge – evolution did it. If you see two species that converge – evolution did it. And if you start comparing cladograms it’s a huge mess!

I am not willing to accept evolution “as is.” If evolution has the creative power it is claimed to have then we should be able to find some solid empirical evidence. If you can show me how to get from chemical precursors to functional protein then I’m in. I’ll even take a theoretical explanation as long as the steps are scientifically valid.

I want to add one more point Larry and that is that from where I sit the conflict is good for both science and religion. Having been in all the camps and having both prayed with fundamentalists and meditated with Buddhists, I have come away from my experiences valuing the creative tension between opposing viewpoints.

I applaud Michael and this group and their focus on finding the common ground between theism and evolution and after having been in both an evolutionist and a theist (and currently being neither) I see the issue very differently.

The conflict is not the problem. The problem is the inability to utilize conflicting viewpoints for creative solutions. It’s an “iron sharpens iron” kind of thing. Although I agree we need to get along, I’m not as interested in seeing both “points” dulled to ineffective butter knives. Somewhere along the way we have lost our ability for real debate.

Both evolution and Christianity need their respective detractors to become better “maps” because ultimately this journey is about is finding better and better “maps” to guide our lives. Both scientific paradigms and religious paradigms offer points on our respective “maps” and although there is common ground between the two, the conflict forces necessary revisions. And we all need constant revision – evolutionary maps, scientific maps, religious maps, political maps, all need to be continually evaluated, re-evaluated, and revised, and re-revised over and over again. We can only do that if we can learn to be comfortable with conflict without letting it destroy us.

This “please introduce yourself” invitation is a great thing! It’s fun to hear from all these people from so many different backgrounds, all interested in deepening their understanding of evolution and spirituality!

My background includes a life-long interest in both areas. Four years ago I got so annoyed at the superficiality of the science-vs-religion debate that I started a blog to share my thoughts about their convergence. It’s still going.

It includes several essays on Michael Dowd’s work, among many other topics. If you’d like to check it out: sammackintosh.blogspot.com

Grew up Southern Baptist and felt the call to the ministry in college but instead taught elementary school for nine years. In college, I began attending American Baptist Churches that were not stuck on literal interpretations of the Bible.

While teaching, science was my favorite subject but the science-religion debate was always a problem in the back of my mind. I continued my “teaching” as Director of Christian Ed at First Baptist, Worcester, MA and only decided to enter seminary when a good friend asked me one day: “Have you ever heard of Matthew Fox?” and gave me a copy of Original Blessing.

From there the doors blew open and I was introduced to the Original Blessings inherent in all Creation, the Creation mystics, Meister Eckhart, Brian Swimme, Thomas Berry, Miriam Theresa McGillis… who all taught me ~ in so many ways ~ that to only preach the Fall/Redemption story of Jesus was a great disservice to the call to preach the Good News of a Cosmic Christ (aka Cosmic Buddha, Cosmic Yahweh, Cosmic Allah… ) also inherent in all Creation.

I came to see we humans didn’t need a salvific ticket to heaven ~ we needed to learn how to live lives that reflect the majestic knowledge that is evolving everyday right in front of our eyes!

Following ordination as an American Baptist minister, I was called to First Baptist in Painted Post, NY where we have participated in Evolution Sundays with Michael Zimmerman from the beginning of his Clergy Letter Project ~ one year inviting evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson to speak.

“Thank God for Evolution” was pre-ordered as soon as I heard it was in the works and Michael Dowd was invited to speak at First Baptist on a very warm July night back in 2008 ~ a small group of us still meet and continue to be inspired by his visit.

I recently became a grandfather and see my work here as necessary for Emily Elizabeth to be able to live in world that sustains and cherishs the sacred Gift of Life we all share.

My favorite quote for this endeavor is Matthew Fox’s paraphrase of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel: “Humans will not perish because of a lack of information but because of a lack of awe and wonder.”

I hope we will be some way for us to obtain contact information for folks in our area who sign up for these conferences and who would be interested in getting together and talking face to face.

Thank you and Peace to Michael and Connie for all of your efforts evangelizing for evolution. Looking forward to the series…

I am an Episcopalian, taught environmental history and environmental ethics for 20 years at Northland College, currently editor of the monthly Creation Care Newsletter (which I will email to anyone who wants it) for the Episcopal Diocese of Eau Claire, and writing a new book titled “Devouring the Earth: The Rise, Fall and Escape From Hypercivilization.”

I am an Episcopal deacon. One who has been in the discernment and formation process for over seven decades and will be seeking and learning until it is no longer possible for me to do so on this planet.

Thank you for this seminar. Evolution and Christianity remind me of the old 50′s song about love and marriage – “You can’t have one without the other”. I am prepared to have some of my preconceived ideas happily affirmed and some tragically shattered.
And, this will be good!

It would appear that I am in good company. Just an ordinary guy that has been on this religion/love/science Wisdom seeking path for 79 years. Looking forward to whatever is coming. Greetings from Fanny Bay B.C.

I’m a little late signing up but very excited to learn about this. It feels like coming home! I am a semi-retired (to be fully retired next May) university Theatre Education professor with a passion for Environmental Education with young people using dramatic enactment and role play to engage children and youth with Mother Earth. My experiences with Richard Rohr’s conferences has been so positive, that I just knew I had to log on and catch up even if I found this in my email just this morning. Thanks for providing this. It looks like an amazing network of resources. Thanks be to God!

I wanted to leave a comment but I hardly know where to start. I was raised as a Methodist, actually was trained as a lay minister in the Methodist Church before joining the Catholic Church. Was involved in the Charismatic Renewal in the Catholic Church and went to the National Conference at Notre Dame in 1983, I was on a Sadhana weekend retreat with Fr. Anthony DeMelo, S.J in St. Louis, and a retreat with Fr. Joseph E. Brown, S.J.. I have since since started practicing Tibetan Buddhism having taken refuge with my teacher Lama Lodu Rinpoche. I have been on several retreat weekend’s with Alan Wallace at the Rime Center in Kansas City, MO.. I attended the Weekend teaching (on The Heart Sutra) with H.H. The Dalai Lama in Bloomington, IN., this past summer. So you could say I am still evolving spiritually. I attend the UUFD (Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Decatur IL.) in Decatur Il. I received my B.S. Degree in Zoology with a minor in Botany and Chemistry. I worked as a Medical Technologist for 12 years before getting into Computer Programming/Analyst which I did for the next 20 some years. I retired 2 years ago. A friend sent me a link to this program which I am very interested in.

Hi Michael:
I am a retired attorney who went through a study and intern process lasting 6 years and now will be ordained as a Unitarian Universalist minister on Jan. 22, 2011, 2:00pm at the UU church on Whidbey Island, WA. If you are in the vicinity you and Connie are certainly invited and I know you know the venue well. Thank you again for your willingness to allow me to interview you about 5 years ago for a paper I wrote on the “Evolution and Involution of God.”
I will be out of the country for most of this presentation but hope it will be stored in my computer’s in box and I can catch up when I return. Thanks for your work.
Bill Graves

Hi, my name is Daria, I’m from Moscow, Russia.
I was baptised in the Orthodox Chursh in my childhood and now go to chursh occasionaly. Or, telling the truth, rarely. My faith and my rational mind are in constant struggle. When I read Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh sermons the faith wins, and when I saw and hear our local priests, it is very different to me to remember myself, that they really are the tools of God.
So, I hope that these conversations will help me to find some peace in my soul.
Thank you,
Daria

Hi, Michael. My mother and I heard you speak in Unity of Portland (OR) about a year ago. I tend to identify myself as a long-time ACIM student and a recovering Physics graduate.

There’s healing to be done on both sides of the religious-science divide. The problems of religion are widely-known and publicized by the likes of Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, but we don’t talk much about the softening and forgiveness that needs to be done on the other side of the fence.

In that regard, I think there’s a lot of great work being done by non-materialist neuroscience (e.g. Mario Beauregard and Dean Radin to name a couple) that I hope is beginning to heal the long-time taboo within science to question the doctrine of materialism.

I look forward to a set of non-violent and forgiving exchanges where such opening can take place!

My husband & I are pilgrims who have been raised Catholic, involved in RCIA, renewal retreats, the Enneagram, and we are always searching for more, bringing us to a different faith level. It was my husband who introduced me to the readings of Richard Rohr and we are excited to participate in these discussions. This Advent Season finds us at more big change in our lives (we are 54 & 57) and we are struggling with that change. When the announcement for these discussions showed up we immediately felt it would give us some focus and help make our Advent significant!

I have degrees and careers in math, statistics, and management science. I have come to believe that evolution is one of the most powerful of God’s gifts. I look forward to hearing how others articulate and live this basic truth of Christianity.

By way of intoduction, I have a PhD in biology, with a focus on cellular/molecular biology. I was employed as a research scientist for a large pharmaceutical company for many years; am now retired.

I am thrilled to have become aware of this initiative, and am thankful to the organizers. I have long been puzzled by the attitude that somehow science and religion are diametrically-opposed. Perhaps surprisingly, many of my colleagues agree. Looking forward to the discussions, dialogue and debate on this very important topic.

Hi. I am a trained Pastor in Mennonite Church USA, and am also trained as a biology teacher. This subject is one that intrigues me. I eagerly look forward to the series.

My work currently brings me to London, England, where I find much interest in this subject. However, the series, as it begins, is on at 1:00am here. That will make it extremely difficult to participate. I will download it and listen on-line. While it might not be as convenient to listeners in N America, it would be valuable to us in Europe to have it at an earlier time. Thanks.

Hi Michael.I share the pain and recovery of addiction with you through the 12 step program.Having attended Richard Rohr’s weekend at Swanwick,Derbyshire in the UK I’m more than happy to take part in anything that he is part of as I just love his spirituality.
My father used to say to me that what I know will fill a book but what I don’t know will fill a library so always keep an open mind to keep on learning,this seem’s to be a wonderful opportunity to learn and grow into who and what God want’s me be and do.
I look forward.
Grant Sharp

I am a Catholic theologian who has worked from the perspective of evolutionary theology for the past several years, grounded in the wonderful interdisciplinary work of the late Arthur Peacocke and the theology of Karl Rahner. Peacocke would surely have been counted among those participating in this series were he alive to see its advent. I look forward to the experience.

Your story, which blends your Catholic origins into your move toward fundamentalism, doesn’t make it completely clear that Roman Catholicism has no quarrel with historical/critical method and has no quarrel with evolution. Catholics, as far as I know – and I am one – teach evolution in their schools and see it as a completely possible explantion for the variety of living things. We are open to science and have no need or desire to oppose science and religion. Catholics are not fundamentalists.
With that said I look forward to learning about what is new in humanity’s explorations into the origins of all that is.

Hello to all. Michael and Connie, thank you for offering this series — I must say that I am deeply impressed at the breadth and depth of my fellow listeners and can see both by numbers and varieties your efforts are touched by Grace.
I would identify myself as a bit of a rambler with a deep longing for peace and spirituality. I have studied a variety of faiths, both Christ-based and non from a variety of sources. Currently, I feel I most closely identify with New Thought (Unity) and A Course in Miracles perspectives.
Like others above I also noticed the predominance of “one look” to most of your speakers and am reassured by your candor regarding your attempt at inclusiveness as well as the variety of voices already identified on line at your Blog.
Personally, my hope from this series is to grow towards a deeper understanding of how evolution and my search for God are intertwined — maybe get a ‘sneak peak’ at what’s next in store for humanity. Thank you again for this opportunity.

Hi, I found you via a tweet from Rachel Held Evans who will be a speaker at the “Big Tent Christianity” in Feb in Arizona.

While on the “Arizona Foundation for Contemporary Theology” page I saw the “Evolutionary Christianity” link and am intrigued by it.

I was born asking “why?” which led me to leave the strict traditional Mennonite (almost Amish) culture I grew up in during my early 20′s. I then spent too many years in a fundamentalist, evangelical church. Then in my late 30′s, I almost died … and almost lost my leg in an accident*. Going through that trauma and learning to live with the after effects (pain/limitations/deformed leg) caused me to look at my faith/beliefs/etc. differently. All the answers I thought I had don’t work anymore, so my faith has been changing/evolving and I look forward to gaining more knowledge through this series.

*I’ve recovered better than expected. While I have a zillion scars and my leg looks nasty, it functions fairly well (now 6 yrs post-accident) and I’m back to running, which had been a vital part of my life for years.

What I don’t understand is why this is an issue at all. I don’t recall Jesus saying anything about ‘science’ in the Gospels. Why can’t we stick to what he said and did and not have these ridiculous arguments and disagreements about science & religion?

I am a Catholic sister who has spent a number of years reflecting on science and spirituality – I look forward to these sessions to deepen my insights and renew my commitment to continue to ponder these issues.

My friendly challenge to Michael Dowd and his interlocutors is to look straight into the shadows. To beware of finding too many answers, too many resolutions, too easily. Life isn’t easy. The history of life hasn’t been easy. The future of life isn’t going to be easy. Any sacred story worth having is going to be, in part, like life itself, disturbing, crazy, inconsistent, violent: consider the Old Testament. We need a Christianity that not only embraces science without reservation (go, baby, go!) but covers its head before mystery: weeps at the foot of all the crosses that have ever been; does not backspace over the cry of despair from the Cross; is not all Easter lilies and sunshiny affirmations. Otherwise, to borrow the title of J. B. Phillips’s book, our God is too small.

So please be sure, comrades, to discern, and to ask, and keep on discerning and asking, what preacher Russell Rathbun calls “the hardest question.” Whatever that is at any given moment. And there if comes no answer, then so be it: praise the Lord and pass the irresolution.

My sincere thanks, and Godspeed as you begin this excellent project. I look forward to listening.

We are very much looking forward to engaging in the coming explorations on evolution and Christianity. The current climate of polarisation between religion and science is so unhealthy and makes impossible the rich cross-fertilisation between them especially in helping us to understand the world of nature wisely as a manifestation of the Spirit. Thanks for your hard work.

I am a lifelong Catholic and spiritual traveller, and I find myself in a season of life in which I feel a greater appetite to live each day with greater openness to the Spirit. I am enjoying reading the diverse backgrounds of folks who will be gathering for these talks–presenters and learners alike–and I am eager to learn and be fed.
Peace, Charlie

Hello!
I am Elizabeth Oleksak, a Sister of Providence and founder of Genesis Spiritual Life Center in Westfield,Mass. You may remember visiting her about 32 years ago when you were embarking on your journey. I am a “student” of the universe and have been privileged to learn from remarkable people like Brian Swimme, Thomas Berry, Teilhard, O’murchu, Gail Worcelo, Jim Profit, Marion Honors, my father and so many other voices too numerous to mention. This is an excitng opportunity and I thank you for making it possible.

I’m so glad to see this series unfold, and am ever thankful to be in the company of like-minded souls. My journey into faith began in my early teens, when as a lost and desperate early teen I was born-again into a fundamentalist, pentecostal faith not unlike what Michael describes. I remained on that path for over 15 years, ever sharpening my saw and seeking a more ‘pure’ form of faith, yet finding disappointment at every turn.

The big turning point came courtesy of one of the featured speakers of this event – Brian McLaren. Listening to a podcast interview with him shattered my once firm foundations of belief in the atonement as a means to escape hell. This triggered a faith crisis, which I really never recovered from. I left the church, could not identify with my previous belief structure, and struggled to find a suitable replacement. Some solace was gained through the likes of John Shelby Spong, but I could not find a community that would equally share such radical ideas.

Of late I have been exploring Buddhism, and listening to some very interesting talks from the Great Integral Awakening teleseminar. That explores in great detail the evolutionary impulse as divine, and a Google search on ‘Evolutionary Christianity’ brought me here. I’m keen to re-explore my original faith in a new light, as my journey goes from dark night to the crack of dawn.

Hello Michael and Connie! I happen to have seen your work twice during my seminary years in the US so am glad to be in on what sounds like a terrific series.

My educational background began with a BSc in Biology, leading into Medical School and on into Psychiatry which I practised for 20 years in Toronto. Inner spiritual growth and a profound mystical contact with what I call God led me to want to change the focus of my work with people from individuals struggling with psychic pain towards individuals and larger groups wanting spiritual growth. That’s when I became Unitarian Universalist and a few years later went to Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago for an MDiv. I interned at First Unitarian Church of Dallas. I’m in my first ministry now, having been called from seminary to North Shore Unitarian Church in West Vancouver, BC right under the gorgeous mountains that pictures of Vancouver inevitably show. I’m glad to say there are lots of people in my congregation excited by the interplay between science, religion and our stewardship responsibilities for all living beings and our planet.
I look forward to these presentations.

My name is Galen Kuhens. During my lifetime I have been a science teacher with an MA in Science Education and an Evangelical Lutheran Curch in America pastor with a Master of Divinity degree. I am now retired.

I come to this gathering at the invitation of Michael Zimmerman. I have participated in the Clergy Letter Project and participated twice on Evolution Sundays before retirement.

I currently participate in the Science and Religion Luncheon Seminars at North Dakota State University in Fargo, ND and I look forward to the planned discussions. Thank you, Michael Dowd.

I have long held that the two fields can be very compatible. More recently I have been looking more extensively at the evolution of conscious awareness in humankind and the role it has played in religious (and/or spiritual) development. The growth of conscious awareness has the potential of being either a positive or negative influence on religion’s role in culture!

Hi, and I am so happy to be a part of this. I am a Roman Catholic convert, and am a Benedictine Oblate affiliated with Conception monastery in Missouri, though I live in New Mexico. I am retired, but have never quit searching for a more encompassing relationship with God. I earned a Master’s degree in History and I see His patience and understanding through all of the many periods I have studied. I have never questioned evolution, always believing that the universe is so much more beautiful and complex than we can possibly imagine, and that only God could have created with such passion and love, but not in 6 days. He has started from the smallest bit of matter and over billions of years has allowed it to bloom more and more fully. It is far from comlete yet, regardless of what human beings seem to think and how it will evolve in the future is such a mystery but I know that it is working to all eventual good for everything God has created, which is everything!

I am a 77 year old woman, cradle Catholic, who in the last ten years has rethought all that has been taught. Through study, intuition, reading others, I have come to no longer believe what the Roman Catholic Church teaches. I am anxious to hear and see this
conference. I do believe in evolution. I hope we all will evolve into
something far better than we are today. The majority of corporations, political parties, the CHURCH have lost their morality.

I also was raised Catholic and was in a high school seminary for three years. I was always active in curch as a leader of song and reader. Over time I became active in Call to Action and my wife and I were regional leaders for a time. We realized that this thinking was stuck in a victim mentality and we decided to move past that and not be a victim. Since then we have engaged in social justice efforts locally and continue to live our spirituality in our daily life.
I have been a fan of Diarmoud O’Murchu and have read his books. They speak to me and align with my thoughts. I also read Teilhard DeChardan years ago and believe we are one with all creation.
I am looking forward to the webcasts.

Hello, all! This is very exciting! I am a catholic priest, affiliated with the Ecumenical Catholic Communion (ECC) and have a small house church known as St. Junia’s House. I was ordained only 4 years ago. I am also a forensic neuropsychologist, so my “day job” is in the court system, evaluating criminal defendants. As an undergraduate majoring in biology, concepts of evolution were at first a shock, as the fundamentalist “bible-believing” mode of christianity in which I had grown up seemed to clash. However, this is something that I worked out over time and I see no contradiction between being a Christian and our growing knowledge-base and changing conceptualizations about our world, how we got here. And the misconceptions about Jesus and his world view and how the story of God has also evolved across the entire Bible is not intimidating or frightening. What joy to have this learning opportunity beginning while we are in the blessed season of Advent! I really look forward to this opportunity and have posted info about it on my blog as well as on Facebook. I’ll also post it on the ECC FB page. “M-J+” stands for Martha – Junia+, my ordination name, in honor of our patron saint. Blessings, M-J+

Dear Michael, I’m very excited by this new venture. To end the wasteful and misleading gulf between science and religion—at their progressive best—is the most important task we globally face today. I am an evolutionary systems scientist currently writing and publishing a series of books to show there was no such gulf for Darwin himself. In page after page of his own writing, Darwin’s Lost Theory and Darwin’s Second Revolution expose the disastrous boogeyman of Creationism. Writing in The Descent of Man 95 times of love, 92 times of moral sensitivity, and repeatedly of mutual aid as primary drivers for evolution at our human level of emergence, the Darwin of reality rather than fiction wholly contradicts the prevailing environmental, moral and spiritual bankrupcy of so-called Darwinian survival of the fittest and selfish gene politics and economics.

I hope this long ignored data base—quickly accessible via http://www.davidloye.com or through online book sellers—can be helpful in the vital dialogue you’re launching which lies ahead.

I’ve never had a problem with being Christian and believing in evolution so the idea that it’s a problem for others is hard for me to understand. It seems just plain ignorant to think the world is only a few thousand years old. I signed up for the broadcasts because of the speakers listed but didn’t have any idea that it was related to evolution.

Hello! This should be very interesting! I am also a “born again”, “baptism of the holy spirit” Christian, who has a PhD in Plant Breeding and Genetics, actively conducts genetics-related research, and teaches introductory genetics at the University level. I’ve never found a great opportunity to talk seriously about the marraige of faith and science with anybody. I look forward to this.

I am a Sister of Mercy (RC), ministering in a health care system in NY. throughout my life, I have been moved by Teilhard deChardin, Thomas Berry, John Dunne Madeleine L’Engle and other lovers of the Cosmos. I recently browsed a book at Barnes and Noble; Earth, with pictures from the Hubble telescope and was filled with gratitude for Creation. One of my favorite thoughts is that we are made of stardust. I look forward to this Advent experience of deepening, and connection with so many of you whose hearts also long for God.

I am a professor of biology at a small liberal arts college. I too came from a fundamentalist background which caused a lot of internal conflict during my undergraduate and graduate education. Thankfully I have mostly been able to resolve these difficulties and am able to communicate to my students that Christian faith and evolution can co-exist. I am always interested in hearing more discussion on these issues to expand my understanding and inform my views.

I am a way-farer on the journey towards a gentle discovery of what it means to be fully human within the web of life. I identify more with the concept of ‘global citizen’ than being bound by any nationality (born in California, studied in London, moved to Scotland where I have lived in the country with my family for 27 years)… And try to resist being bound by any denomination: indeed, I lean towards syncretism, finding something sacred in all faiths that can be offered as gifts towards an enhanced understanding of all beings in our interconnectedness on this fragile earth.

I am honored to be part of this community of wonderful people. My partner Jack and I teach and practice ecological restoration, permaculture, and deep ecology at Small Waters Education near Chicago. (We’ve come a long way since Michael and Connie visited here back in 2002 when we were just getting started.) Now that the last harvest is in, the sandhill cranes have migrated south, and the first snow has covered the earth, it’s wonderful to have this opportunity to learn how Christian spirituality is evolving. I hope to do some evolving too.

Thanks for putting this together, Michael! I’m so glad you’re in good health, and hope you and Connie come back to the area soon!

Hi,
I am a seeker in the Roman Catholic tradition. Centering prayer is my spiritual practice. World view is integral(hopefully as I evolve).
Recently revived interest in Teilhard de Chardin supplemented by books written by Haught,Rohr, Delio et.al. My interest in this advent program went up exponentially when I viewed the list of lumenaries involved. Thank you for putting it together.Most impressive!!!! Also highly recommend Barbour video clips.

As a youngster growing up on a Nebraska farm, my dad taught me that he found God in the fields and the animals and I learned and have always experieced the same joy. My mom grew up as a Polish Roman Catholic and I learned religion from her and I found peace for many years. As a teacher probably 30 years ago in a catholic elementary school, I was asked by a student why there was no mention of dinosuars in the Bible. An excellent question and one that I did not ever conceive of asking because I saw “both sides”.
I have been blessed through the years with a seeking mind and desire for spiritual growth which was welcomed and fostered I no longer feel that desire being welcomed and fostered.
I look forward to learning from the wisdom of others and being challenged this advent.

Hi,
I am a bi-vocational Pentecostal minister (42 years). I serves as director of pastoral services for a long term care facility and as pastor of mission (though over 50 years old). My father, pastor of several small congregations, though Pentecostal and untrained by the academy, was inquisitive and set the example for me of not be limited by my religious tradition. Hence, I reject fundamentalism and embrace an interfaith perspective while working with my church (COGIC) in which I am often swimming against the tide.
I am eagerly anticipating hearing the presentations as added insight for my continuing development and sharing with others in ministry and as a person. Although I completed a doctoral degree in congregational growth and development focusing on extended bereavement support, I am working to complete a book tentatively entitled: “Principle and Practices of Christian Worship: A Radical Pentecostal Perspective.”

I was just introduced to this blog and the lecture/streaming concept by my friend and mentor, Charlie Carr. I am looking forward to the lectures.

I am fairly recently retired from years and years of Corporate America and am determining phase 2 of my career. I am married for 28 years to Tom Pope and have 2 incredible children – David (22) and Lauren (26).

I grew up in the Methodist church and always knew something wasn’t quite syncing with what I knew to be true inside. I have been in the Presbyterian church for the past 20 years because it is ‘close’ both physically and practically from the way I grew up.

And I call myself a ‘Buddhistian’ because I can’t really call myself a Christian the way it is defined. I can’t be a Buddhist because I believe profoundly and always/forever in God. But everything else fits me perfectly.

Evolution has never been a cold mysterious problem for me. It has been a ‘no-brainer’….. of course God is amazing enough to make it from scratch….. Really, really scratch!

I’ll introduce myself by sharing this poem which I wrote 2 eyars ago. It is my celebration of evolution! I am a School sister of Notre Dame-professed 62+ years.
Lillia

I Am Who I Am
I am who I am from yesterday
The yesterday of long ago days
The yesterday of a mother’s womb
The yesterday of centuries past
The yesterday in the womb of God
Before all yesterdays came to be
Here I am who I am
With all things that be
Touched by a creative power
Loved and lifed by a God of Mystery
Birthed together with all things that be.
From primal egg to star dust
From star dust to Mother earth
From Mother Earth to me
In solidarity connected
With all things that be
Intimately loved by a God of Mystery.

I am who I am today
The being who eons ago
Was held in the womb
Of this God of Mystery
Aware of oneness with Yahweh
Wonderfully woven
With all things that be
Loved and loving
In the now time.
Missioned to proclaim and witness
God-love and God-harmony.
Called to be bread broken and shared
For Mother Earth
For all people
For all things that be
Called to be eucharist
Called to witness solidarity.

I am who I am for all the days to come
Tomorrow, all the tomorrows
Designed for my time to be.
Each tomorrow unfolding
Witnessing God-love, God-harmony
Being eucharist, living solidarity
Loved and lifed by Yahweh, God of Mystery,
Until that last tomorrow
When caught up in final mystery
The I am, I bring from yesterday
The I am, I am today
Becomes the new I am
Embraced and transformed
By a loving, creative God
Yahweh, God of Mystery

Dear Sister Lillia,
Your poem is so beautiful! May I have permission to reprint it on my blog? I am an ordained catholic priest (Ecumenical Catholic Communion). If you’d like to check me out first, here’s the info on the website, from which you can get to the blog or my Facebook page:

Hello. I am a process theologian. A blogger http://theoplay.blogspot.com/
and a lay leader at a UCC church. I too think that science and religion are mutually compatible and mutually beneficial. I look forward to the dialogues.

Ever since I was a teenager I’ve been interested in the interface of science and religion. As a young seminarian I hid copies of the works of Teilhard de Chardin as if they were a stash of pornography. In recent years I have been fascinated by the pictures of the far reaches of the universe coming from the Hubble telescope. I’m really looking forward to this series.

Greetings from Southern California. My academic and career background is nursing, health and human services research, organizational psychology, and business. My spiritual evolution has been Roman Catholic, unchurched, Episcopal, Buddhist, Religious Science…..and now again practicing a contemplative and Eucharistic spirituality as a follower of Jesus through a Roman Catholic framework (but I can’t quite identify myself as Roman Catholic). I have always believed that everything, and everyone is in continuous evolution.

Being ‘in transition’ in every domain of my life once again, I am grateful for this series as an opportunity to have the current transition be informed by yet another rich perspective.

Thank you, Michael, and this amazing community that is forming around the globe. I look forward to learning with you!

Dear Karen,
You say you can’t quite say you are Roman Catholic? You sound like one of ours! I invite you to check out the Ecumenical Catholic Communion (ECC) which is a small but rapidly growing association of independent catholic church communities of which there are a number in SoCal. I am an ordained priest in the ECC (Yes we ordain women!) If you go to my website, http://www.stjuniashouse.com — click on the link for the ECC and it will get you to our directory. My little house church community is in Anaheim. Blessings, M-J+

When I was a boy, I got kicked out my Sunday School class for arguing that there was no conflict between evolution and following Jesus. After two decades of being a committed atheist, I went to a seminary of my childhood denomination, was ordained, and served for over thirty years as pastor and chaplain. Now I’m retired.

For most of my life I’ve been an ardent student of science, philosophy and religious practice. My understanding has evolved since I was child, but I’m happy to think that I had the basics figured out back then.

This forum sounds like a lot of fun. Many thanks to all of you for joining it.

Wow. I was just reading some of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s incredible writings, so this is perfect timing for this series. I’m overwhelmed by this amazing event featuring many of my favorite authors.

I have no impressive credentials – I’m just a “regular joe” who is a husband and father, and who plays drums in a band. I was raised to think of evolution as evil, but, thanks to some of these speakers, it’s now so natural to think of God creating through evolution. I find it difficult to discuss issues like this with most people, so it will be nice to have an intelligent conversation with everyone here. This is exciting!

Impressive credentials do not guarantee accuracy. There are scientists like Dr Damadian who invented the M.R.I. , Werner von Braun who got us to the moon using rockets designed by Robert Goodard and many of the greatest theologians in history who see evolution as the scourge of mankind. Someone is wrong.

Here is something to consider. All atheists are evolutionists. What else can they be? The few who claim to believe we were “seeded” by aliens will never say God created the aliens. Two thirds of evolutionists believe that some god guided evolution .

Lets see what that does to scripture which Jesus Christ held as perfect. If evolution is true not only are the first 11 chapters of Genesis lying and misleading but over 200 other references to those chapters by every single prophet , apostle , God the Father and Jesus Christ are also lies. Those chapters are referenced twice as many times as all the other books in the Bible combined and always as literal history.

What is left? Are you going to allow your feelings and emotions to guide you? Why are your feelings any more reliable than anyone those of any else ? Maybe the Hindus are right, the Satanists perhaps?

What does this do to the character of God? The Bible teaches that God is a just and loving God who cannot look upon sin and when Adam sinned He cursed the perfect creation but loved us so much that He choose to give His son as an atonement from the beginning of creation. Thorns and thistles did not exist , there was no disease, no death, all these are do to our sin. One day God will restore the perfect creation.

If evolution is true we have absolutely no reason to believe anything the Bible says , not about morality and not about forgiveness and eternal life. That is why it attracts people, if we evolved we make the rules, not God. After all if evolution is true we cannot trust what the Bible says , we cannot be sure anything we believe about Jesus is true. If there was death and suffering, predation and disease before Adam sinned then God used death and suffering over long periods
of time to create and we can forget the New Heaven and the New Earth and just hope death is what evolution teaches , the end , your worm food, you cease to exist. If the history in the Bible is a lie it all is.

Why obey a God that incompetent and dishonest?

I have spent a very long time studying this subject and I am as sure as I exist that evolution is an ancient anti-God religion that rejects both science and common sense. Are you that sure these ‘experts” are correct and the Bible is something to ignore? Every generation has a whole new version of the same ancient story . if evolution were true why does it change so? Dig a bit, look at the people you admire here and at who they hold up and you will find a lot of very odd alliances to say the least.

Thanks for this personal information, Michael. I’m an Episcopal priest, now retired but still active. I read Thank God for Evolution a couple yeatrs ago and used it twice for sermons on Evolution Weekend. I’m so grateful to you for your joyful witness to the true wonders of creation. I look forward to the teleseries about to begin!

I am a former Roman Catholic priest, ordained in the Society of St. Columban. I received my doctorate in theology from the Academia Alfonsiana in Rome back in 1972. My main interest and passion is Liberation Theology and “passage meditation” as taught by Eknath Easwaran. I have recently retired from 36 years of teaching Religion and General Studies at Berea College in Kentucky, where I initiated (five years ago) a Peace and Social Justice program. I am currently teaching in a Latin American Studies Program in Costa Rica sponsored by the evangelical Council of Christian Colleges and Universities. Years ago I realized that the “Darwinian Controversy” had really been settled in the 17th century by Galileo Galilei in his “Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina.” There he answered to nearly everyone’s satisfaction the very problems that fundamentalists would subsequently raise about Darwin’s thought. While few fundamentalists, despite its contradiction of literalist readings of the Bible, reject a heliocentric “universe,” they seem incapable of recognizing the parallelism between Galileo’s theories and those of Charles Darwin. I look forward to participating in this promising series of exchanges between scholars and spiritual leaders.

Fr./Dr. Mike+
(As far as I’m concerned, you are not a “former” priest: you are still a priest!) I was very interested in your comment on Galilei’s “letter to the Grand Duchess Christina.” Can you give me a cite where I might find it to read?

I am an ordained priest in the Ecumenical Catholic Communion (ECC). We have many prior Roman Catholic priests who have been incardinated into our ranks, some of whom are academics or in other professional arenas. Check us out!

I am a bi-vocational pastor for Community of Christ. I am fortunate to have been raised in a home where science and religion went hand-in-hand. Once I got out in the world it was a bit of a surprise when I came across other Christians that did not think evolution was compatible with Gospel. I am looking forward to learning how to share the larger story tied to the good news in ways that are nonthreatening and life affirming.
Blessings,
Jana

“Now is the time to give up the God of ancient times for a new understanding and a more modern concept of a God that is the whole Universe. A God that is Creation itself. A God that is all good, all loving, all caring. A God who lives in each of us, because this God is us and the entire Universe. Live just one day with this realization, and you will see God in all things everywhere, and you will feel the infinite power of the Universe (God) flowing through you and all of Creation.” —Jim High

I am a 91-year od priest, ordained 66 years, June 3/44, living in semi-retirement at Resurrection Manor (which we refer to as “Withering Heights),” still celebrating Mass at a nursing home and with the sacraments in various parishes.

During my seminary courses the subject of evolution was never denied but simply stated that the 4000 years before Christ was not to be taken as a historical fact but that somewhere along the line God created a human soul into a primordial being.

It’s never too late to learn so I am looking forward to this series to bring me up to date..

I am looking forward to this – what a wonderfully positive use of technology. Hurray! and thank you. I love my 10 grandchildren, my paints and brushes, the garden and beaches. I live in Gisborne which the sun lights up before any other city in the world each day – the coastline is stunning.

This is such a great resource that you are providing and you give it away for free. I enjoy seeing websites that understand the value of providing a prime resource for free. I truly loved reading your post. Thanks!

Really?
No matter how many times
I hear these words
there is a voice,
that with convincing whisper,
insists this is faux hope.

Some, in order to live
as if this is the rock on
which the castle of their faith is built
remain vigilantly poised on the parapet
summoning the hope they learned in Sunday School
that the siege of life’s demons
might be held back
by making the confession over and over-

God is in control
God is in control
God is in control

as if by its very repetition it
might become true
and at last the weapons of
this spiritual warfare can be
but back in the armory-

God is in control
God is in control
God is in control

Hoping against all hope
that it is true—the unimaginable
betrayal that it isn’t.
To say so is to turn your back on all
that is right, and true and american-
sinking into the abyss unbelief.

God is not in control.

There, I said it.

Now in the letting go of these
shackles that, unimaginably,
restrict God’s freedom,
God’s wild, beautiful, terrible
intention to create a free world,
there is an opening created
for real hope to break in-

real hope

that all that is is in God
in whom we live and move and have being.
And not just us but the other too.
And not just the other but the whole cosmos

in God has being.

Real hope is

that God bears all-
that all is in the womb of God-
that out of this space-in-God
the new is being born
and in the fullness of time

God will be all in all
and there will no longer
be any need to believe

I am thrilled and honored to be invited to this timely conversation around science and religion, and particularly Evolutionary Christianity. The broad interest from the respondents is indicative of the spirit-hunger on our strife-torn planet.

I come to this discussion as a long-time student of The Urantia Book revelation and recent devotee of the Emergent Christianity movement. Richard Rohr’s ground-breaking Emergent conferences introduced me to the transformative new “Pentecost” moving through the church. After being blessed with the exquisitely integrated cosmic perspective of the Urantia Book and decades of disappointment with crystallized dogmatic Christianity, my hopes for witnessing an “Evolving Christianity” were being realized. Along with spirit pioneers like Matthew Fox and Thomas Merton, the courageous teachings and practices of Brian McLaren, Doug Pagitt, Phyllis Tickle, Rob Bell, and Sally Morgenthaler have dared to challenge those whose “God is too small”.

Thank you, Michael, Connie, Richard Rohr– one and all– for continuing to evolve this most relevant conversation, that we may further resurrect the universal teachings of Jesus from the tombs of planetary history.

“… the religion of Jesus stands as the unsullied and transcendent spiritual summons, calling to the best there is in man to rise above all these legacies of animal evolution and, by grace, attain the moral heights of true human destiny.” — UB 195.9.9

I am Douglas Taylor, minister of a mid-sized Unitarian Universalist congregation in Binghamton, NY. We’ve hosted Connie and Michael several times and it is always wonderful to hear them and to share their message with others in the community. This will be quite a treat.

Wow! This was an exciting dialogue between Ian Barbour (amazing insights and knowledge, along with the ability to communicate very abstract ideas on a level for the ordinary person to understand) and Michael, who asked significant questions and shared universal insights.
Originally I did not think it would be necessary to download the event, but I am looking forward to reviewing some of the ideas for myself and in order to be able to share what I heard with others.
Thank you, Michael, for “creating” this opportunity.
Carol

Hello I am a doctoral student in spirituality at Washington Theological Union, Washington , DC. retired and interested in experiential education. Understanding of self and God through evolution, nature, and the link of it all is my passion.

I’m delighted this topic is gathering such a wide audience with such noted speakers. As a spiritual director in the pursuit of a doctoral degree, I have studied the effect of scientific metaphors for God on the religious experience of individuals. I am convinced of the importance this topic plays in raising human consciousness.

One comment I would make is to note the minimal number of women on the dais even though there are renown women working in this field. People such as Ilia Delio and Elizabeth Johnson, Gloria Schaab Ursula King or others could have brought much needed women’s perspective to fields that have been historically highly dominated by male energy. The consciousness in need of human integration at this juncture of history is precisely feminine in nature.

I look forward to listening.
Thank you for offering such a marvelous opportunity.

Great start Michael with Ian Barbour. Ian’s final comment in response to your proffered framework for all involved – evidential deep-time eyes and global commitment – is really significant. He added that we need to acknowledge that there are interpretive frameworks within which the evidence and commitment will be viewed.

Those interpretive frameworks – mine for 68+ years is Roman Catholic – and too often if they are Christian begin and end with scriptures written only 3,000 years ago. Scripture, using Thomas Berry’s dictum is derivative, and until this is acknowledged and pastorally taught and preached within Christian churches there will be confict(Ian’s model#1) and confusion.

I am United Methodist Clergy. I entered ministry in mid-life. To tell the truth, I entered the Christian faith in mid-life. I grew up in a religious environment that was very suspicious of science and didn’t believe evolution. I loved science, and thought evolution just made sense when I first learned of it. Before I could come to faith in Jesus Christ, I had to come to terms with science and faith.

I would really like to work with people who are engaged in understanding the science/faith interface, and learning that the two are not mutually exclusive. Thus far in my ministry, this has not been a major issue of the persons in the congregations I have served. I am hoping that at some point, I can work constructively in this area.

This was really very interesting! I did wonder if you were “preaching to the choir”. Ian Barbour did a great job of telling us about his journey. My comments follow:

1. Will you have on board any “alternative” thoughts throughout the program? It’s probably not a good idea to have just folks who agree with you. “Familiarity does breed contempt”.

2. Barbour mentioned the “limitations of science”. Could he or someone articulate that a bit more? What is he talking about?

3. The discussion presumes the acceptance of god as a fact (?) or an act of faith (?). I don’t know. Could the two speakers clarify?

4. Barbour spoke of “re-formulating the concept of god”. Could he or someone expand on this? This is a bit of a jump…

5. At its first hearing, the program presumes an acceptance of god as a reality – truth – fact. Is this really true in the discussion of “evidence based” discussion?

6. I do credit Barbour with his statement that his concept of god may not be one of “omnipotence”. That’s a shift from where I learned it all. Does that mean that god is “other-potent”? Clarification would be very enlightening.

7. In light of all of this, I would be very interested in your evaluation of the book of Revelation. Does anything mean anything?

I must say – I will be interested in the next session. Please, oh please, don’t preach to the choir. Talk with the people who are truly interested in the discourse.

1. I assure you that these 29 thought leaders do not agree with me on everything, or even on most things. But the purpose of this series of conversations is NOT to highlight our differences. Rather, it’s to focus on what we DO agree on and where we can confidently say that speak with one voice.

2. No idea, though I’m certain he covers it in his books. I just honestly don’t remember.

3, 4, 5, and 6. Not at all! IMHO, any so-called “God” who can be said to exist or not exist is trivial and inconsequential compared to what is UNDENIABLY REAL. I’m an evidentialist, a religious naturalist. There’s a mountain of evidence, from a variety of disciplines and across the globe, that all gods and goddesses are are relational projections of reality as a whole or some significant aspect of reality. God is a personification not a person. In fact, I know of no counter-evidence. If you’re curious, my own views on this matter are best articulated in my public debate with Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, titled, “BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY IS BANKRUPT” and in the main evening program that I’m now delivering to all religious and non-religious audiences (which I also delivered at the United Nations last April): “EVOLUTIONIZE YOUR LIFE: HEAVEN IS COMING HOME TO REALITY” (alt title, Deep-Time Wisdom: An Inspiring Vision of Humanity’s Future“.

7. The Book of Revelation is a written-down dream, or vision. It means whatever any person or group wants to make it mean. Frankly, it doesn’t mean much of anything to me. I’m not inspired by it at all, except perhaps mythically (and not much even that way).

I have no idea, Carolyn, who exactly you think “the choir” is. I speak to everyone from evangelicals to atheists, and both ends of the spectrum (and everything in between) are represented by the thought leaders in this series.

If you want to fully appreciate this fact, I invite you to see here:
and here:

To my mind it would be hard to imagine a broader representation within the Christian tradition, unless, of course, you are suggesting that I interview proponents of Young-Earth Creationism and Intelligent Design too (which I have no interest in doing).

I’d only heard of you and your ministry, Michael, a couple of months ago, when Andrew Cohen paid a visit to the Integral Awakening Group I’m a part of, and had some glowing words to say about your role in advancing the evolutionary enlightenment he preaches. A couple weeks ago, I bought copies of Thank God for Evolution, for myself, and for my mother’s birthday, and a few days later, got an invitation from Craig Hamilton to listen in on this!

I’m not sure how many of these discussions I’ll sit through, live, but I’m glad to know they’re here. I’m looking forward to hearing Kevin Kelly, as I’ve been enjoying his publicity recently for What Technology Wants, as well as his conversation Exploring the Technium, with Ken Wilber. There aren’t too many other names I’m familiar with, in the roster–Matthew Fox, Brian McLaren, John Shelby Spong–so, I can only guess what other gems might pop up.

This sounds, too, like something my community at St. Gregory of Nyssa E.C. might be interested in, too. I didn’t spot any co-parishioners in a quick skim through the comments above, so I’ll forward a notice.

Thanks for this series, Michael. I am so happy to hear that you are well again and continuing your work. I was born a Catholic, but by age 12 (many years ago) wondered what relationship the universe had with God and why my Catholic faith didn’t talk about the universe. I have graduate degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science and then God came calling and I have a graduate degree in Pastoral Study. I heard Brian Swimme talk about the universe story and I read as much as I could on the new cosmology. I looked for theologians that would begin to put some meat on the new bones that were being offered by science. When I heard you speak in Milwaukee, I was very encouraged. I began to call myself an Evolutionary Christian. I hope that this series helps me to better understand what this means.

I was raised Roman Catholic and am now Methodist — sort of. I am a psychoanalyst and author of “Perversion of Power: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church” which unpacks that denomination’s sexual abuse crisis. I am interested in the intersection of psychology/psychoanalysis and spirituality. Look very forward to this series.

Mary Gail, given your profession and field of expertise, I’d love your radically honest feedback on the first half hour of the main program I’m now delivering in all religious and non-religious settings: “Evolutionize Your Life: Heaven Is Coming Home to Reality“. That’s where I deal with evolutionary brain science, evolutionary psychology, testosterone, addictions, and the like. Let me know what you think!

I was grew up as conservative, fundamentalist Southern Baptist church. I always harbored intellectual doubts about Christianity and the resurrection. I received my undergraduate degree in Chemistry at a secular liberal arts college, and in those 4 years, evolved from a creationist to an old-earth creationist. I earned a PhD in the basic sciences, and over that time, I accepted evolution and still remained a Christian, particularly after meeting Francis Collins at a conference. But the doubts still persisted. I became a stay at home mom after having children, and upon trying to teach my children about Christianity and attending a conservative Presbytarian church, I found I could no longer be at peace with the conflict of evolution and Scripture. I consider myself more of an agnostic Christian on a journey, still searching, but committed to living the life modeled in the New Testament. I do not struggle with evolution and faith per se, but it certainly has enhanced my doubts about the resurrection and miracles of the Gospel. But I often wonder if my struggles would have been minimized if I had not been taught strict Creationism as a child. I am worried about the next generation of Christian children. I am new to homeschooling, and the evangelical perspective in the homeschooling world of science and history is alarming.

I am so excited about this series. I’ve had the pleasure and privilege of hearing a number of the presenters in person and reading their books and am looking forward to hearing the others. From the earliest years I can remember I know myself to be a seeker and processor. I’ll be 72 next week and my joy is that by now I’ve figured out that I actually know so little that I’ll be able to seek and continue to be surprised by God until the end of my days. What a delight to anticipate! Understanding that God’s M O is evolution has filled me with hope and gratitude because things have always needed to make sense to me–even mysteries–and in evolution mystery makes infinite sense.
Thank you and your team for the blessing of this series.

Reading your list of speakers and topics has me in a state of excited anticipation! Thank you for bringing this together!

I’m an Anglican and a retired astronomer (three decades with National Research Council of Canada in Victoria). For a long time scientists (myself included) were in denial that a non-material world exists. But for the past dozen years, we have known with certainty that 95% of the cosmos is cosmic energy and an unknown, invisible kind of matter. Cosmic energy formed the galaxies and controls how they are evolving today. Could the invisible universe also direct the microscopic worlds of biological processes and consciousness? It is premature to state this, but the question can legitimately be raised. We are entering into a new vision of “all things visible and invisible”. What is the true nature of the cosmos and its creator?

We have so much to learn – a good starting point is recognizing the sacredness and beauty of all creation.

I am a married Catholic priest with a rich ecumenical background: Lutheran on my father’s German side, Episcopalian , Baptist and R. Catholic on my mother’s English and Irish side. Many years ago, while driving my son home from 8th grade religious ed class at our Catholic Church, he shared with me about the teacher that night who, in a word, said NO to evolution. I encouraged him to go to the office the following week and get the volume of the Catholic Encyclopedia that I was sure would relate Pius XII blessing, albeit conditioned, on evolution. The office refused to give him the tome. He then told his pius and well intentioned teacher that his father was a Christian humanist who accepted evolution. She shuddered and said this was not possible. On the way home that night I predicted aloud to my son that if he ever parted from the Catholic Church, it would be over its exercise of closedness about so much of reality that we have been blessed with as a human race. …So, a big, big thank you to all of you who have spent so much time and effort to date in your personal writings and testimonies to openly and honestly and publically discuss the relationship of science and religious belief using the evolutionary perspective of the billions of years the universe has been around, and the miniscule size of our home here on the Earth with the probable only recent advent of us humans. You are doing what is so necessary to help us transition into the present historical reality and to find the vocabulary and symbols that make our religious practice and spirituality meaningful. So far, in my case, I am grateful especially to Richard Scaine and CORPUS Reports where the work of so many of your scholars is so succinctly summarized and made available to persons such as myself and others I share with. I am very much looking forward to the program and dialogue you will be providing over the next few months.

I was raised in an evangelical culture (Salvation Army) and faced a predictable faith crisis after entering university in 1962. As others in this conversation have mentioned, it was the American Scientific Affiliation and its Canadian counterpart which played a significant role in my faith journey, helping me to see the inadequacy and totally unnecessary destructive consequences of making creation and evolution mutually exclusive alternatives.
Although I completed a PhD in Zoology in 1974, I chose to follow what was for me a more appropriate, very life-enhancing path, which led me to hospital chaplaincy (as part of the Canadian Salvation Army Health Services Dept). This experience exposed me to the multifaith environment of a cosmopolitan city, and the reality of authentic faith journeys lived by people from a diversity of faith traditions (and outside of any organized faith tradition as well). Christianity’s exclusive claims on the grace of the Divine were no longer credible. This experience, my seminary exposure to Biblical Criticism, the process of my training in the Clinical Pastoral Education movement and my reading of people such as Brian Swimme, Matthew Fox, John Spong, Marcus Borg, and others, the Hubble revelations, have all served to move my theology inexorably in a liberal direction. Since moving into semi-retirement 4 years ago, my wife and I have connected with a progressive non-theist church in Toronto but we are still looking for something more . . . something which impacts us personally, emotionally, and spiritually . . . an awareness of the awesome Mystery of the Universe and our relationship to it. It is difficult to verbalize this longing . . . but I think the issues around which this discussion are focused, is getting close to it. I am indebted to Bruce Sanguin for making me aware of this conversation.

Ultimately truth converges, even though, in the process, temporary truths destruct by contradiction. Science and any true theology or philosophy are a search for living truth which moves beneath the abstract systems, as Jacques Derrida and John Caputo have shown, and become en-mattered, enfleshed–just as matter and spirit are two dimension of the same reality, so empirical science and the search for the reality of our subjective experience are not contradictory. Each of us is human, but in a unique way. Each of us is a person, but each of us is a thou in this time and place. Jesus, Buddha, Lao Tse pointed to the deeper unity beyond that which can be measured, as important as that is, but ‘le cœur a ses raisons, que la raison ne connaît point.’ As Teilhard told us, all that rises converges–I don’t recall who said this but in the 21st century, scientist will become mystics and the priest will become counsellors.

Loved the fist lecture. As a psychoanalyst, I resonated with Barbour’s concept of “explanatory pluralism” and actually see helping patient to achieve a capacity for such pluralism as part of my work. That achievement — in development or in therapy — helps any one of us potentiate more involvement in the ongoing project of creation.

It seems to me — and help me out here — that the discussion suggests that we human, because our capacity for linguistic symbolization and memory, have a particular responsibility to sustain and broaden the creational processes, including protection of the planet.

While I don’t think it was said directly, it occurs to me that the implication is that God also evolves; that the divine is not fundamental and unchangeable, but rather engages in an ongoing way with creation and changes along the way. Yes?

I am a nurse by profession, help tp coordinate palliative care home care services and I am a mission integration director for a faith based organization. Guess I’m drawn to the spiritual path and never tire of contemplation and conversation of our differentiation yet connectedness, open and inquisitive and love to learn from great spiritual leaders. What a wonderful opportunity.
Thank you!

Oh Lawsy, this sounds like an interesting group of people, regardless of the topic, which is also intriguing. Well to be truthful, the topic in and of itself, is one that has always made me scratch my head and ask,”Why do people find a conflict between science and faith?” I thought that thinking people of faith blew away this conflict a long time ago, but apparently it is an example of a whole series of related conflicts that liberals and conservatives want to kill each other over. Being constitutionally opposed to violence, I’d love to be part of untangling these conflicts. I am a scientifically trained (biology, human physiology, exercise physiology, natural science), Christ-loving, Bible-following (well except for the weird parts) lesbian Christian, who has a strong calling to tell the world the Good News of God’s reign in some New way yet to be revealed.

Hello
I’m a Christian Meditator (John Main style) also interested in inter faith journeys and just beginning an OU degree in which I hope to study various aspects of religions. A Methodist originally then I found the dogma hard to take so whilst maintaining my Methodist roots I atteneded a Quaker meeting. On retiring to Norfolk I helped in a local prison with Christian Meditation and am now part Methodist part Christian Meditator.

I know little about science but have a great love for Charles Darwin and I am thrilled to be able to learn more through this series of debates.

I am also a great fan of Father Richard Rohr and it is via his website that I discovered this opportunity.

I think this is a very good project and I agree with the aims and ideas of the organisers. I am looking forward reading the comments of those who will contribute to this programme so as to increase my understanding of and gain inspiration for my Christian pilgrimage.

I grew up with no religious training. My mother was on her own spiritual quest and I traveled with her. My parents and I discovered the Urantia Book when I was 16 and life began with new meaning. This revelatory work harmonizes science and religion.
I am currently reading “Annie’s Box” about Charles Darwin’s daughter. Also a film has been made telling this story called, “Creation”. Both are very enlightening about Darwin’s life.

this is completely wonderful and timely. i too was raised in fundamental christianity. have since have had powerful enlightening experiences, studied with Matthew Fox, and wrote a book that will be availlable in a few weeks at my website. it is the Universe story, creation story, and our soul’s journey from the voice of Wisdom. (a wonderful weaving of science, spirituality in love)
the titlt is ‘A Story to Live By’
Blessings on everyone. We can do this and make Heaven on Earth a reality

I am a West of Ireland Catholic with our Celtic Christian monastic traditions firmly embedded in my practice. On a daily basis the wonders of science (evolution, nature, biology) teach me about God and what ‘faith’ really means. Looking forward to learning from this group. Richard Rohr has been my ‘teacher’ for some time now…..

My name is Harriet and when I retired 8 years ago I was fortunate to be introduced to the work of Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme. Since that time I have read many of the authors represented in this series, and I look forward to hearing from them and also some new voices. I think this topic is vitally important to us today and I am pleased that so many people from so many disciplines are eager to learn and share.

Hello, my name is Walt Smith and I am a Project Manager from Central California. I had quite an odd experiance with Christianity a few years back. I went from being an Atheist to a Methodist Christian and then back to being Atheist although I do prefer to just call myself “Non Religious” perhaps with a touch of “Secular Humanism”… I have recently begun reading “Origins of Species” and in all truth I am not fully up to par with it however when I heard about this discussion for the life of me I cannot see how the two can go together so I really look forward to what your panel has to say..

I am a former Catholic, now practicing Buddhism and TSK. I have maintained an interest in, and still have a heart-connection to, my religious roots, however, and have followed the work of Christian pioneers such as Michael Dowd, Raimon Panikkar, Thomas Merton, Beatrice Bruteau, Bede Griffiths, Henri Le Saux, Thomas Keating, and others (several of them participating in this seminar) with appreciation and gratitude. I teach courses on Transpersonal and Integral psychology and spirituality at John F Kennedy University and also run an online forum dedicated to exploring the promise of Integral Postmetaphysical Spirituality. I have used Michael Dowd’s book in one of my courses and am really looking forward to this promising event.

Hello, Michael,
I was raised Roman Catholic, the only religion i’ve practiced faithfully, and at seventeen was disturbed to realize that I no longer believed that Christ is divine. My mentor at that time, Sammackintosh, who has the best blogspot on the web has introduced me to all these ideas, said, “So what? ” I was gleefully into evolution since that same time and have lived most of my years in Pakistan, a country which has the longest unbroken record of biological evolution in the world.
Now at 66, I am mostly a buddhist Muslim (Islam means to submit to the will of god, which devout muslims show by touching their forehead to the ground in prayer five times a day). I believe that we all are divine and that each of us is co-creotor through evolution. Thank you, Michael, for putting this together – and for all you do. I am excited about joining.

Any religion that has been around for 2000 years is bound to have collected considerable baggage along the way. Hopefully, this series will help to strip away some of the baggage, and get us closer to essential Christianity, which you refer to as “that kind of christianity I don’t know yet”
We have spent the last 2000 years changing the religion taught by Jesus into a religion about Jesus. In my own humble opinion, the change started, and the baggage started accumulating at least as far back as Mark.
One place that you might start to learn about “that kind of christianity” is “The Five Gospels” by Funk, et al. Funk doesn’t have all the answers, but his style of honest qestioning may lead you to see that the answers are there, within you, if you look deep enough.

I have been looking for the bridge for science and spirituality since I was a teenager. As a little girl playing under the Christmas tree with my nativity set I was always trying to decide what to be?

I loved Jesus and as a 6 year old could not decide if it would be more fun to be his mom or his wife . That innocence set me on a life journey that has been nothing less than remarkable.

I am an artist, a published writer, choreographer, teacher and currently the executive director for the Scripps Performing Arts Academy. I am married to the love of my life and have 4 beautiful daughters (one in spirit) and 2 grand~daughters. One son-in-law and another to join the family in August! Life is Grand!!!

I want to do my part to expand the perception of God so that my Grandchildren’s children will experience the love and peace that our creator intended.

I am humbled to be in this community of great thinkers and look forward to the process of this no doubt, evolutionary life-enhancing experience.

An Anglican priest for nearly thirty (gulp!) years and still, I hope, learning. One thing I’ve never understood is how people can imagine that it diminishes God to see creation as the patient work of millions of years rather than a pre-scientific 144 hours.

The great Swedish scholar-bishop Krister Stendahl used to say that Genesis 1.1-2.4a is one of the greatest Jewish jokes. The whole of creation exists so that there can be Shabbat!

My first degree was in the sciences ( physiology and chemistry) and I became a christian later in life. The beauty of the biological mechanisms that regulate life’s processes are what convinced me of God’s presence in and through all of life. It makes absolute sense to me that S/He would also have incorporated an evolutionary process that enables life forms to evolve and adapt to their changing environmental circumstances, rather than having them be static creations that are unable to survive change. There is so much scientific evidence that supports the idea that the earth is much older than 6000 years and that demonstrates the ongoing reality of evolution. Science is the search to uncover truth in the physical realm and God is Truth…hard to see how they can be incompatible! Thanks for providing a forum for a unifying dialogue.

I am a Roman Catholic and have always believed in God and evolution. It seeems more of a miracle and very exciting to see how the creation of the world is still evolving after billions of years than the creation of a stationary man and woman as in Adam and Eve. I also believe in a Cosmic Christ that Richard Rohr speaks of in all of his writings and that everythings fits into God’s universal plan.
I am a nurse, wife, mother and grandmother through which I have come to know divine presence and continue to evolve in my understanding of God.

‘from bible belt in alabama, here! i was introduced to the marriage of evolution and creation by my biology professor, dr. james sparks of stillman college. he spun a beautiful tale of God’s expression through every unfolding aspect of the universe. he was also a baptist minister, and he married my husband and me.

thank you for providing this ‘ministry’. this study will hopefully take us to a place of Truth — a place we must realize to continue evolving.

I’m late to the party – finally read the e-mail announcement I had received from Richard Rohr’s Center for Radical Grace – but signed up immediately with great excitement. What a fascinating, diverse group of presenters and participants! Despite growing up in a conservative (not fundamentalist, thank God) Southern Baptist environment, I never had a problem accepting that science and faith could both be True. I was given the grace to be raised by a father who was both a person of deep faith and a science teacher, and then to attend a Baptist college where I was taught to think critically about faith, scripture and the church.

I recently have realized again that I find science fascinating, though I am not well-read and have little formal training. A bit of reading in chaos theory has given me a very rudimentary understanding of quantum physics, and within that disciple I can intuitively grasp that science has new light to shed on our understanding of God.

Most of the authors and organizations mentioned in this blog are new to me, so I look forward to a rich learning experience from this series! Thanks to all for your contributions, whether as presenter or participant.

I listened to the first of the series yesterday and enjoyed every word. I’ve been a follower of the Way as a Christian since my early childhood. I’ve been a learner in Integral Theory and Spiritual Practice for a couple of years. I’ first met you Michael in Craig Hamilton’s Great Awakening series last year – and followed his course. This coming together in this series is not to be missed.

I’m a spiritual director (after retiring from a university which brought my intercultural living and research together. I look forward to the sharing and the evolution as we go.

I am a life long Lutheran; baptised and confirmed. My wife and I attend Resurection Lutheran Church in Oro Valley, Arizona. To me evolution is one of God’s basic building blocks of life in an ever developing universe. I am a sceintist and Christian; these disciplines do exist in harmony. God’s grace is ubiquitous and infinite. To me it is natural for God as the creator to continue to improve, modify and develop creation. Our problem is that we find it difficult to understand time in billons of years but how much of creation is millions of light years away from us. Think about ligth traveleling at 186,000 miles per second and relate that to a million light years; very difficult to comprehend to that dimension.; yet astronomers think in those relationships everyday.

Lets open our minds and accept the vastness of God’s Universe.

I am currently writing a book of Daily Devotins entitled ” Travels With The Trinity” currently 275 of 365 are complete. This book should be finished by Spring 2011.It is meant to help people to nourish their religous experience everyday and teach and discipline you to daily read, study and think about The Trinity.

I’m a member of a Science of Mind church here in Pacific Grove, CA. Dr. Bill Little, a trained physicist who has studied with several masters over the years, is our minister. I’m what you might call a “conservative mystic” — that is, yes, I’d like to contribute original thinking, but at the same time I try to give proper credit and appreciation to those people who have inspired me over the many years.

In short, I’ve developed a comprehensive Model of Creation and Evolution — essentially grounded in the Perennial Philosophy and the incredibly diverse metaphor of the Tree of Life, both of which have enlivened all the spiritual traditions. This is a linguistically-based Model which convincingly shows that “Creation” — the process of transformation of the One to become the Many, which takes place in the unmanifest realm of Potentiality — is absolutely critical for any Evolution to take place AT ALL. At the heart of this Model conceptually, then, is a depiction which provides specific “tethering posts” for the mind to facilitate our grasping the subtleties of the Model.

I am very interested in the CONNECTION BETWEEN CHRIST AND THE TREE OF LIFE. Two different ministers I asked said, without hesitation, that Christ IS the Tree of Life. It would be wonderful if some of the upcoming discussions centered on this very potent subject — because essentially, the Tree of Life has been ignored, and all attention has been focussed on the Tree of Knowledge.

I’ll be following the series with great interest. I’m a big Bishop Spong fan.

I am a mystic and a Quaker. For the last 45 years I have been trying to figure out why people see a contradiction between religion and science. Religion teaches the “why” of creation and science teaches the “how”.
This looks like a fabulous list of presenters that you have here, and thank you for putting it all together. I’m looking forward to participating

I grew up in the Churches of Christ, then moved to the Anglican church and now am in the Salvation Army, and applying for officership. This series seems to have come at an excellent time for me, as I’m struggling with believing that there’s significant evidence in evolution, and not having it affect my faith that God created the universe, but at the same time feeling that holding those views within the Salvation Army is looked down on – that the predominant view is the creationist view.
I don’t know where this leaves me, especially in my future ministry. But I look forward to this series in helping me make sense of all of this.

Hi,
I am a 50 something female in northeastern Washington state, USA. I have been a Christian since 1971, non-denomenational, evangelical, pentacostal…(how is that for labels?). For the last five or so years I have been exploring what faith looks like outside the confines of a typical church setting. Now I guess I call myself a fulfilled Christian Universalist. Glad to be joining the conversations.
Tressa

I am a late in life, second career seminarian at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, Texas. I am seeking ordination in the PC(USA) tradition. I love all the international posts. I am so hoping that God will call me to Scotland or China!!

David ‘Slick’ Sellers
a 40yo United Methodist pastor in USA, Mississippi
serving as an associate pastor at Parkway Heights UMC in Christian Education and spiritual direction
and Shepherd for The Open Door Community – a worship service and experience for the recovery community

Thank you Michael, Connie and all your team that is bringing this series to us. I feel these conversations are at the cutting edge of our evolution as a species and I’m glad to be a part of it. How incredible that we are the universe reflecting on itself and fleshing out the next step! It is a gift and blessing. Thank you!

I have joined both evenings now. I have read some of Ian Barbour’s works and knew that I would be comfortable with him. He did not disappoint me,

I am not much of a mystic so I was interested to see how tonight would go. For me a memorable moment was his introspection on the story of the prodigal son. His correlation of the prodigal son and we as a prodigal species was very poignant.

I am a Baptist pastor who has recently (in the past 2 years) come into the deeper understanding of evolutionary spirituality. Michael, your book and Connie’s curricula have been the water my soul has been needing. Sadly, sharing this good news would shatter my church and devastate my ministry. So for the time being I have to simply be content with learning, but it is a lonely road. However, I am convinced that if Christianity is to survive another century, it will have to evolve. Thank you for hosting this teleseries Michael. You are a prophet in the truest sense of the term.

Two on and already so much. The brief introductions of people listening show many who are or were associated with an organized religion/faith community but…The two conversations begin to illustrate what that but may be.
Bruce talked of his dualistic world collapsing after reading Brian Swimme’s The World is a Green Dragon. He later spoke of “taking our place in grace”, a grace that is ever-present because God who holds everything in existence and relationship is and always has been present in our cosmos. His parable of the prodigal species gets beyond individual sin and redemption – the raison d’etre of many organized religions -and he finished by expressing the need for the mystical language of the cosmos(so often referred to as secular humanism) to replace the traditional language of liturgy and religious education.
Everything Bruce spoke of during his conversation with Michael can enrich a believer’s understanding of the traditional organized religions however much of what he related is often seen as a challenge and a threat to those self-same religions.
To speak of my own Roman Catholic home, Teilhard was castigated then ignored, Matthew Fox was driven out, and Thomas Berry’s work made few inroads in seminaries, chancery offices and in the pastoral practice of parishes. It was communities of nuns who ran with the prophetic work of these men and you know what Rome thinks of American nuns.
For many organized religions the duality is between heaven and earth that comes from a 3,000 year old cosmology.”Taking our place in (an always present) grace” sounds a lot like Pelagianism and we know what happened to Pelagius.
The powerful story of the prodigal, when not focused on the individual but on larger groups like religions is less desirable for church leaders and for the most part religious education curricula and liturgical language is aimed more at the head than the heart, the intelect morte than the imagination.
I look forward to getting Bruce’s new prayer book to join other similar ones I possess as the liturgical language of my church has not inspired or engaged me for some time.

Greetings Michael
Thanks for your honesty. I am the editor of a Catholic newspaper for two dioceses in New Zealand. The paper is distributed free to schools and parishes in the central third of the country and there is a healthy subscription list. I also run a website which suffers as a poor relation to the newspaper though I have the new year resolution polished up. Like you I came through the fundamentalist upbringing charismatic model and out the other side, mercifully. Richard Rohr is a hero and I enjoy his daily meditations. Also Joan Chittister and other feminist Christian theologians/writers. I am energised by the concept of human participation in creation through evolution and I look forward to learning more over the next couple of months.
Thank you.

I am an episcopal deacon and have been living as a pilgrim for justice, peace and healing since 1986 when I served as the chaplain for the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament in 1986. My pilgrim journey has been more of an inner journey since the early 1990s as I have been dealing with significant health challenges since then.

Having been raised as an episcopalian whose undergraduate work included a strong emphasis in science, I never felt any contradiction between my faith and the theory of evolution. I was taken with Brian Swimme’s book The Universe is a Green Dragon back in the late 1980s, though I did not think a lot more about evolution or the deep time perspective on life until I listened to an interview of Tom Atlee, who I knew from the Great Peace March, by Craig Hamilton on Evolutionary Activism which was a part of the series “Awakening the Impulse to Evolve”. Listening to that interview and some others from that series, I began to get a clear sense of the evolutionary nature of the gospel. Repentance, the transforming of our minds, being at the heart of Christ’s invitation to us. The image of the Body of Christ and we as its members pointing toward the next level of complexity and cooperation to which the arc of evolution is drawing us.

Having been born under the shadow of the nuclear arms race and having been scarred by violence in my own life, I’ve felt compelled to confront the question of theodicy since I was a young adult: If God is good, why is there so much evil? I am interested in exploring what the theory of evolution and the science relating to it suggests about the violence in our world and the betrayal, lies and deception in our human culture.

I have just listened to the conversation between Bruce Sanguin and Michael, and am inspired by this series so far!

I am intrigued by the Theology of Fragility and/but heard a comment that makes me want to bring another voice to this table. I completely agree, by experience, with the reality that relating to persons with disabilities brings gifts of awareness of our own fragility. But – it’s a slippery slope to assume that those humans who live with disabilities do so by the ‘will of God’ so that others can become aware of fragility – a slippery slope which persons with disabilities fight hard to get off of, and onto the level ground of equality which honors their strength and dignity. The grace of God inbreaking at fragile places is a great insight and a holy truth, but please, let’s not go from there to an assumption that that’s why God allows disability….

I am a Methodist Local Preacher based in Sheffield, England. Many years ago I was a biologist but I moved onto community development and now I work part time for the Methodist Church of Great Britain as Assistant Ecumenical Officer. I write three blogs and my personal blog ‘Exploring Ecumenism’ includes some of my thinking about Christianity and Evolution. The others are So What? which is another personal blog that covers general matters. I also write Methodist Ecumenical News which is one of the Methodist Church’s blogs.

I am a medically retired researcher and writer. Most of my life has been plagued by the disease of addiction. I`m now fighting to get back into recovery. My faith, and recent confirmation into the Church of England have been a great strength for me.
Your site was recommended by my local Vicar, and I`m really impressed. As a keen follower of Richard Rohr and Cynthia Bourgeault I was so pleased to find your web-site and it`s work.
For someone who spent their life searching for something, finding God, through Jesus Christ has been a revolutionary experience. The relevence of Christian teaching is more valid today than ever, as long as one doesn`t follow the brickwall analogy of faith, where inflexibility and dogma rule and love becomes and forgotten command.

I am a recently retired United Church clergywoman and can now devote my time to connecting and relating to visionary people like you. As long as I can remember I have had the notion that there was a great esoteric knowledge hidden in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ about the evolutionary nature of the human race and its ultimate goal. This esoteric knowledge, found also in the ancient pagan cultures of Egypt. Mesopotamia, Persia, India, Greece and Rome, had the belief of a pre-existent, archetypal “Cosmic Christ” or “God Person”. Jesus being a receipant of this knowledge, achieved in his lifetime and grounded into the consciousness of the human race for all time, a new “State of Being,” a “New Humanity” as prophesied in Revelation, to which the entire Creation is heir. Teilard de Chardin referred to this new state of being as Christ’s “Third Nature”, meaning that his human and divine natures transformed into a third nature, which is neither human nor divine, but Cosmic. Chardin referred to the process as the “Chistification’ of humanity.” (A word not even found in the dictionary). I have come to understand that the ultimate goal of the whole of Creation is that we are evolving toward the birth of a new heaven and a new earth. This Cosmic birth is a shift from terrestrical life to universal life. This is the Divine plan for the whole of creation since the beginning of time and the Messionic promise given to all by the historical Jesus and demonstrated by his person — the everlasting bringing forth in humanity of the divine and perfect life. As the apostle Paul puts it in the Bible, it is for all of us to grow into the full stature of Christ. Jesus knew that the way for humanity to achieve the divine and perfect life was by opening the heart. He knew that collective transformation could not take place in a people where anyone person was marginaled or dehumanized, The unconditional law of love grounds his entire life and message to humanity as this law does in all the great sacred teachings of the world. The secret to the transformed life is the open compassionate heart. For God so loves the world. I have been working with and writing about these ideas for many years and it has been a lonely process. However, I do know that everything has its season and comes forth in its own time. Friends we are in its time. As in the past, great shifts of consciousness occured when humanity was imperialed. This is the day and I am glad to be part of it with you. Blessings.

Thanks for sharing your story, Michael. I can relate to the early part of your journey. But I eventually left the church because of this rift between science and faith. Carl Jung’s work was an important bridge for me. But that work wasn’t enough. I’ve been compelled to return to a Christian church because I’ve discovered –through my long Odyssey–it is my spiritual home. I look forward to the series.

This looks wonderfully interesting. I’ve been a student of A Course in Miracles for 28 years, plus a searcher all my life, so this is right up my alley. The work you are doing is bringing people together, rather than trying to win an argument. Bravo!

I am a Presbyterian (PC(USA)), pastor with an undergraduate degree in microbiology. I have always seen science as just another way of appreciating the complexity of God’s good creation. I’m eager to see how this event plays out.

I am familiar with and appreciate the works of Richard Rohr and Matthew Fox. I am also familiar with the works of some of your other commentators and find them to be on the wrong track. So this could be interesting.

My background is 25 years of practicing, teaching and writing about spirituality, Yoga, and meditation.

It will fascinating to see if the discussions address
1. the ‘creation story’ of the Bible as a metaphor for moving Kundalini upward through the main Chakras toward God-Consciousness.
2. science as a useful but mundane device that is prevented by its dependence on logic, reason and language from accessing That which lies beyond those three modes.
3. “The Great Story of 14 billion years of divine grace and creativity” as being not about evolution from a scientific pov but rather being the story of karma at work and the collective creation of the sentient beings of the universe as the struggle between their self-focused desires and their spiritual natures.
4. the inappropriatness of literal, fundamentalist interpretations of either science of religion.
5. The so-called clash between religion and science is non-existent and is actually only a clash between egos which lies in opposition to the tenets of both religion and science.

Hello Michael and Connie, been awhile since we met on Galveston Island in 2004, when you visited the UU Fellowship there.

My name is the Rev. David Pyle, and I am the Interim Minister of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Midland, Michigan. I am also the Battalion Chaplain of the 414th Civil Affairs Battalion, U.S. Army Reserve in Southfield, Michigan. I am a graduate of East Tennessee State University with a bachelors in history and political science, and I hold a Master’s of Divinity from the Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago. I just completed my CPE Residency at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital and Rainbow Hospice in Park Ridge, IL.

I rest theologically at the intersection of Christianty, Buddhism, and Religious Naturalism… and I remember some fo the earlier iterations of the Gospel of Evolutionary Christianity well. I look forward to the program you have developed.

I am familiar with and appreciate the works of Richard Rohr and Matthew Fox. I am also familiar with the works of others of the panel and find those views, shall we say, unconvincing. So this exercise could be fun.

My background is 25 years of practicing, teaching, lecturing and writing about spirituality, Yoga, and meditation.

To me, the so-called religion-science conflict is a tempest in a teapot, that is, it is without significance. It will be interesting to see if these forums address the following:
1. The creation story of the Bible is not to be taken literally but rather metaphorically as a description of the necessity of taking Kundalini up through the principal chakras in order to attend God-Consciousness, thereby resting in one’s own true nature as in the seventh day.
2. The idea of ender unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s whereby science is limited to mundane concerns and is wholly unable because of its dependence on linear modes such as reason, logic and language to address, much less understand, non-dual transcendental matters. To claim science is capable of addressing the transcendental is to commit the fallacy of composition.
3. Science has attained the stature of the Tower of Babel. It is the latest in man’s attempt at axis mundi.
4. The so-called debate between science and religion is a non-starter and is merely a clash of egos between those in the “science” camp and those in the “religion” camp, all of whom forget that such polarized argumentation is against the core tenets of their science or religion.

Hi, I’m Francis from the Philippines. My religious- theological background with my own personal sacred experiences wants to grapple with you and millions of people the vast mystery of God’s presence here on Earth. For I believe that God is, was and will be.

I am looking forward to this conversation! I had spent many years in a fundamental / evangelical approach to my faith with more answers than questions. Love and mystery have “broken me open” to receive the newness and the allness of God each moment … each day …. a freedom to live my questions! I have always struggled with the notion that “facts” and “faith” don’t seem to fit together … when really God shows up as our ordinary lives .. in the details … in the history … in the moment of “what is”. Thank you for initiating this conversation and inviting us all to join you!

I posted a comment about disabilities earlier this morning, before introducing myself more formally. I am a United Church of Christ clergy person in Maine, USA, with a long standing interest in the intersections of religion and science and contemplative practices. This series and the comments about it are such a ray of good hope in this season – THANK YOU for offering it!

Michael and Connie:
Thank you for the wonderful work you are doing with the C.A.C. I’ve been an activie student of CAC and its programs over the last several years and a graduate of MROP. The whole process and programs of the CAC have been very refreshing and sheding real light on the subject of the Historical Jesus, the worlds greates Prophet.

I was raised on a farm/ranch in SW Kansas, raised livestock and been around a lot of birth and death of animals and pets. Raised in the Catholic church when (and still very much is) hung up with the status-quo systemic system of the Papacy–the male-dominated, power-oriented, cover-up-prone organized religion which permates most of the organized Christianity. Quit this belief system, studied the LDS Mormon faith–more strongly of the same status-quo–and now in the process of becoming a recoverying Episcopalean. Had enough of the dualistic approach of the doctrine and dogmas of organized Christian Religion. Presently I am studying and enjoying early Christian mysticism of the early desert fathers and mothers and the mysticism of other world religions. It’s giving me finally a freedom of Spirit.

To the question at hand: Evolution and God (or Christ). I was taught that God had “created ALL things (including human constructs) of the Cosmos, including the Cosmos. It is all a Unity of One concept. Therefore, I view the bible and science as part of his greater whole and the whole of the Cosmos is very changing, including Adam/Eve and their progeny. Everything around them is every changing and the bible I consider to be organic as well (change the metaphors to modern parables).

I gained my greatest appreciation of this entity the Church (made up of and controlled of humans mostly) calls “God.” When I went to college an eternity ago(!), I studied in the field of Biology, specially Wildlife Ecology. Part of my graduate cirriculum was studies in Mammalian Physiology. This heavy study along with a course in Atomic Physics really [to me] gave me a very deep insight into what the Christians call “God.” I was then and even to today facinated by how the our near universe and the cosmos works–mind bogling it is–the electro-magnetic forces. I also took a graduate course in Darwan studies and found it to help describe how the universe is a changing dynamic–not static as well. I have never had problems bringing the bible and science together. Yes, there was a period in which science attempted to discredit the Concept of God. I see them reconciling more and more and coming back together as Unity in God.

These studies along with my studies in Religious Mysticism and contemplation have helped my to remove the human constructs of the definition of God and lift me to a higher consciousness at being one with the Ultimate Mystery (all boundaries and concepts of God removed–or in other words, let God be God).

There is an excellent book by Diarmuid O’Murchu titled “Quantum Theology” where he has taken the theories of Quantum Physics to help explain the Cosmos of the Ultimate Reality. Excellent study. It takes the universe to the level of relationship, the subatomic world of God. Again Science showing “who” or “what” this Creator is to its best ability.

Will Christianity (or the Church) survive over the next 50 years as we know it now? No! As long as the status-quo has its chock-hold on the organism, it will not. Unless there is change (and humans for the most part hate the word “change,” Christianity will die due to a lack of a sense of adventure. “Whether it be the individual Christian, the local congregation, the church at large, or the nation, there is no real communion with God (Ultimate Mystery) without change. If we want things to remain as they are, we are telling God to be quiet.”

We can be just as we are if we insist, but isn’t it hell?

By the way, the Historical Jesus was not a member of the sect we call Christianity. His basic teachings, the sermon on the Mount, fits into all world faiths or religions–preach the Good Word to the world [he didn't say it had to be this faith or that faith, just take the word to the world]–the source of most of the dualist mentality. He is considered to be the Greatest Prophet on Earth by ALL major religions regardless of the doctrines or dogmas of the faith.

Sometime in my eighth year of school, between the school year 1950-51, I was fortunate to have had a smart (alec?) co-ed ask sister about the account of creation in Genesis in light of evolution. Sister explained that six days in God’s time were not necessarily the same as six days on earth. From that point onward, I was enabled to live happily with the idea of evolution. However, it’s not quite that simple, and I have done a lot of praying and reading trying to figure out the relationship between Christianity and evolution. With God’s good grace, my prayer and inquiry have paid off for me, and I am very excited about both, so I look forward to hearing what others have to say.

Sometime in my eighth year of school, between the school year 1950-51, I was fortunate to have had a smart (alec?) co-ed ask sister about the account of creation in Genesis in light of evolution. Sister explained that six days in God’s time were not necessarily the same as six days on earth. From that point onward, I was enabled to live happily with the idea of evolution. However, it’s not quite that simple, and I have done a lot of praying and reading trying to figure out the relationship between Christianity and evolution. With God’s good grace, my prayer and inquiry have paid off for me, and I am very excited about both, so I look forward to hearing what others have to say. Unfortunately, I have yet to hear the first session.

I have been excited about the Sacredness of evolution ever since I heard Diarmuud O’Murchu speak at Loyola for the Retreats International Summer Education program about 10 years ago. I have read Brian Swimme and have never seen a conflict in my theology and science. I walked my first labyrinth of creation about 8 years ago and was overcome with the expansiveness of my image of God and the universe. Who am I that a little juvenile sea squirt would develop a spine and allow me to be bale to stand tall and have all my neuro-electrical paths cross through to move my body.. Who am I that out of all the endless possibilities it is I that exists and moves and has her being in God. How many universes have developed and been lost or reshaped to give us this magnificent universe that we call home. Thank you for this opportunity…

My name is Isfried, I’m from Belgium. I studied Philosophy at Catholic University of Louvain, now I’m teaching Roman Catholic Religion at secundary school (pupils aged 15-18).
Since my arrival in Ghent (an atheist bastion in Belgium) and the year of Darwin, I’ve notist a lot of continental Philosophy explains the cultural forms of religion, but never tries to get to the core bussiness: the epistemology of religion and God. So, here I am!

I’m a retired scientist and a semi- retired Episcopal Priest. My scientific field was chemistry/mathematical modeling of environmental contaminants. In the church I have served as an interim pastor and search consultant.

I am a member of the Society of Ordained Scientists. My current effort is working to develop a study group on contemporary issues in faith and science for my parish.

I feel like I am literally ‘speaking’ to the entire world via this site. Wow!

Well, I heard about this website through the Center for Action and Contemplation founded by Richard Rohr, a Catholic priest of the Franciscan Tradition.

I have heard Richard address the issues of “science” and “religion” in his teachings. I remember him saying how religious people have devolved to the point of desperately wanting to know, to answers, certitudes, dogmas, doctrines, etc. which is contrary to the real meaning of faith. On the other hand, scientists such as astrophysicists and molecular biologists, live and practice the true meaning of faith because they say,” we just don’t know,” how big or small the Universe really is.

Anyhow, I hope I am able to follow and keep up with these daily teachings. I am here as a learner with what the Buddhist’s call Beginners Mind.

I am so looking forward to being involved in this journey with what I’ve seen so far of the people involved. I grew up catholic, and like many others grew away from it. However, I’ve always found that the spiritual foundation that catholic experience gave me saved me from cults and the stew of “spirituality” that is out there looking for lost souls while also allowing me to explore and study world religion and learn from it as well as science. It has always been apparent to me that there is no real divide between real spirituality and science. And though I am still more or less of the lapsed variety for various reasons, it’s the catholic way that I keep returning to.

Hurray. A global congregation, excited and committed to evolving in faith.
Thanks Michael and Connie for your work thus far. Connie I use your stories in my work with deepest gratitude. Michael, so grateful you’re healing and leading again! Thank you for your book(s).
Why I’m celebrating – I’ve been looking for a community since I retired from congregational ministry to open a retreat and educational org, Gaia Centre here in Ontario. Since shifting my life work to sustainability of sacred Earth (whatever that might look like) from saving the bricks and mortar of struggling congregations I’ve enjoyed the freedom of expanded spiritual thought but have missed having an intellectual community in which to test how I was reconciling Creation Spirituality, The New Universe Story, Cosmology, and Christian Theology. So hurray, for this opportunity.
A little more. Challenged to return to my tradition last June by Barbara Marx Hubbard ( we hosted her at Gaia Centre conference in Toronto) I began to study Evolutionary Spirituality and to test it this Autumn in a Sunday series called, Consciously Becoming in local congregation. I I’m looking forward to this internet series where I can further test some of my findings and questions.

Could it be we’re not only exploring a new language here but are co-creating the new church?
Hurray, to this series. Carol

Hi, I’m Sara, a lay person in the midlands of South Carolina. I am trying to help connect a network of progressive Christians in this area. With the help of some local Christian ministers and other leaders, I’m going to coordinate a retreat at Santee State Park in May with the theme “Creation Spirituality for Progressive Christians: Applying the 4 Paths to the 8 points.” Please visit the above website for details. I’ll be posting more information in January.

I have been a peace and justice educator and activist since 1979 and a Christian psychotherapist based in a Roman Catholic parish since 1985. In the last 4 years I have been focusing both aspects of my work in various ways on the converging crises we are facing as a species, and on seeking my part in what Thomas Berry called The Great Work, humans becoming a mutually enhancing presence to and in the Earth community.

I just discovered this most interesting resource. I shall be trying to catch up. With 69 years behind me I am looking forward to attaining perfection. Am I in the right place? I will settle for just making a few new friends of such high caliber. Peace and Love to all.

There may be conflict between the “interpretations” but there is no conflict between the facts, even though I (or even we, the human race) do not yet have an interpretation that adequately holds the two lots of facts together. That does not mean that there is no adequate interpretation (known only to God currently) nor that we will not eventually work it out.

i was also raised with the “creationist” view that Genesis and science conflicted. mymother even went as far as to tell me that my 7th grad science books were wrong, and that the fossil records were created by the devil to confuse us! deep down, i couldn’t believe that chritians were so far off and started studying on my own, and discovered the tale of the annunaki as described by zecharia sitchin, who presented an alternative for Intelligent Design. whether or not his version is correct, whether or not we evolved on our own or were seeded, i still know Devine grace and love and believe that God is in the details of science, as evidenced by recent discoveries in particle physics. Blessings to All!

I am the pastor of a small rural congregation of the Presbyterian Church, USA, located in central Pennsylvania. I have been asking questions about faith and evolution since I was a youth. I respect the integrity and truth of the Bible, and am amazed by the intricate connected beauty and wisdom of the universe. I want to be able to discuss and speak with a greater openness and understanding regarding God’s gifts and work. Thank you for your efforts.

Hello! I am Mary, a Benedictine sister living at St.Benedict’s Monastery in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I am Director of our Retreat & Conference Centre and I know that these conversations are what so many seekers are thirsting for. I look forward to the series.
Thank you.

HI All,
I have just scrolled through the many comments and am so thrilled that Michael had the vision and the passion to start this dialogue.

I am Carol Vaccariello. Born and raised Roman Catholic. Roman Catholic Sister for several years – because ordination was not an option. Journey took me to Disciples of Christ and ordination – Have pastored several churches. Currently serving two United Church of Christ congregations. One is more traditional/conservative: Congregatioinal United Church of Christ in Canon, Ohio and the other is Progressive/Experimental: HeartSpace United Church of Christ in Brunswick, Ohio.

Matthew Fox invited me to work with him at the University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland, CA – I co-led the Doctor of Ministry Program in Creation Spirituality and had the awesome privilege to work with so many of the thinkers/teachers whose names I have seen in these posts….Matthew Fox, Thomas Berry, Brian Swimme, Rupert Sheldrake, Joanna Macy, Ana Perez Chisti, Jeremy Taylor, and many, many more…
The work that we did at UCS evolved into the desire to have grads take what they were learning into the world – so we initiated a “different” concept in Ordination and created a program which prepared grads to “do their Sacred Work in the World” in whatever form that sacred work manifested.

I was approached by an Independent Catholic Bishop and was welcomed as an Independent Catholic Priest in the Old Catholic Tradition and then consecrated Bishop. As Bishop and at the urging of John Mabry of Berkeley CA I started an egalitarian religious community that continues to flourish in the Bay area.

Many of my teachers have been Native Americans and I have been mentored to provide Earth Based Spirituality for those who are so hungry and find organized religion to be uncomfortable. We gather at the Medicine Wheel for teaching that brings together Native, Earth based, Creation Spirituality with a scientific component, and whatever traditions present themselves at the Wheel.

My greatest love and gift is to serve as a SPIRITUAL COMPANION for those on the journey who seek to have some one walk and journey with them. I work with ALL religious and non religious, spiritual seeking folks. My Doctoral work is in Dream Work as a Spiritual Practice and I love to do this work also.

website: WheelWithinTheWheel.com will provide a little more info about my background. However, life has kept me too busy to keep the site updated –

I have listened to each evening’s dialogue and make it a point to get home to listen. This is an absolutely thrilling opportunity and one that could cost a hefty sum. I can’t tell you how thankful I am to be able to witness each of the speakers – AND ALSO – the dialogue and sharing that happens here. I look forward to wrestling with new and deep questions.

One of the greatest gifts that I received from working with Matthew Fox was that I was able to learn how to articulate what I knew in my heart of hearts and didn’t have the words to express. I believe that this series will continue to broaden my vocabulary and assist me in translating what I know in my heart of hearts to the people that I am called to support in their spiritual journey -whether in the local church, gathered around the Medicine Wheel, as a student preparing a dissertation, or some one who calls or comes for Spiritual Direction.

I am thrilled to be a part of this discussion.

Thank you, Michael. I applaud you for your deep passion and continued commitment. If I can help you in any way – let me know.

Number 3 conversation excellent. As Denis said, ‘We don’t all speak with one voice” and that is what is so enriching, and so encouraging. Unfortunately Christianity has a sorry history of only allowing one voice and excluding/excommunicating the “other” voice.

I enjoyed my fellow Canuck Denis and as he emphasized he is a “bible-thumping evangelical”, while I am a Liverpool Irish Catholic.

I don’t see a great disconnect with theology departments or theologians but do see a real disconnect from what is happening pastorally in parishes – homilies and liturgical language – and often see conflict in Catholic high schools between Science departments and religious education departments.

I have led workshops for science teachers in Catholic high schools and for whole faculties in Catholic high schools. The response of science teachers is a warm thanks for affirming their academic science education and its place in a faith context.Only rarely do religious education teachers have anything to say. Why? The religious education curriculum in use acknowledges evolution and uses a contextual reading of the scriptures.But too often at school and parish liturgies all scripture used(not just the Genesis accounts of creation), particularly in homilies, is used in a simplistic literal fashion.

Now I understand the difficulty presented in a 10 minute homily. But too often what is presented is a literal reading of the scriptures and it is presented by an authority figure in the context of ” a celebration of eucharist” or “the holy sacrifice of the mass”. No wonder Catholic religious education teachers are sometimes confused.

For me the most significant aspect of the work of the new cosmologists is the challenge to understand and language (fides quarens intellectu) God, Jesus and the Church as a result of what we have learned in the last hundred years.

For Denis his biology and theology bring him to a “personal” God – his analogy of the 8 ball brought up to God’s heart for a personal relationship. I’m still struggling but I’m not where Denis is. Denis’ God that comes through his biology and theology ends up the same God who listened directly to my childhood prayer, “Our Father who art in heaven.”

Denis thanked Evangelical Christianity for bringing him to the foot of the cross. My education in elementary and high school, in undergraduate and graduate studies, all at Catholic institutions that I loved and where I learned much brought me to the foot of that same cross.

My later studies and ongoing reading of the new cosmologists from Teilhard and including Thomas Berry, Brian Swimme, spiritual writers like Matthew Fox, social psychologists like Diarmuid O’Murchu and adult educators like Michael Morwood have moved me away from the foot of the cross and into the life of that Jesus of Nazareth and his understanding of God.

The fact that the human life of that Jesus, his understanding and preaching of a God who has always loved us and never been separated from us brought him, as a result of human interaction to the cross is radically different from the Fall/Redemption theology that I had been immersed in most of my life.

Denis spoke of God revealing himself through evolutionary processes. I see evolution revealing creation and creator. For Denis progressive revelation leads to a “personal” God who does the revealing. I prefer to think of revelation progressing through ongoing evolution and so my understanding and languaging of God is also evolving.

Hello! In “the bleak midwinter,” this conversation is a breath of fresh air. I’m a Christian educator in the Episcopal Church, a pastoral counselor and faith-based consultant. In my progressive university town (Boulder, Colorado), Christianity is viewed as slightly suspect, with nothing to offer true intellectuals. Thank you for a broader community to which I can bring my whole self!

I’m a retired school psychologist who for the past 25 years or more have been studying world religions, parapsychology and A Course in Miracles. I have written two books A search for the Source and just recently Peace is Oneness , a new vision of Science and Religion. Not only is the science of evolution important to Christianity but many other important scientific fields are also. Consciousness research, Near death experiences, depth psychology, astonomy, and the antropology of myths, to name just a few that are relavent. My brother-in-law was an active member of the Scientific Affiliation, a group of scientists who were Christian and wished to build a bridge between science and religion. He co-authored a book entitled The Knights Move before he died. We all benefit when the rational mind expands to include the bredth of experience we are exposed to in this existence.

I am an Anglican Priest who has a passionate interest in issues of faith and science.My previous career was as an Agricultural Scientist ( Plant Pathology ). I started a group in my last parish called The Forum for Faith and Science, which, after 11 years is still going strong! In my new parish I started a similar group.We meet twice a month. We began by studying Barbara Brown Taylor’s book The Luminous Web. Then we watched and listened to a DVD course called Science and Religion, by Dr Lawrence Principe from The Great Courses. I am just thrilled by the terrific, wonderful discussions we have! In January of 2011 we will begin reading and discussing Darwin, Divinity and the Dance of the Cosmos by Bruce Sanguin. I have just finished Michael Dowd’s nearly encyclopaedic book ” Thank God for Evolution “. I love your energy Michael, and Connie!!To me it is an absolute necessity to read and meditate on this information! May God bless your initiatives!!

Hi again – I couldn’t find my comment on the Sanguin – Dowd diaglogue. I’m not very gifted in IT. I hope it wasn’t deleted because I had some critical comments i.e. The Second Coming. And I would love to hear from some women theologues, like Rebecca Parker, a former Methodist like myself, but now Dean of Starr King Seminary in Berkeley.
Peggy Bardarson
,

I am French, now American in the US. Raised a Catholic and still so, even though essentially upset about many things about it. What part of my religion is worth passing on to my three sons? I’m curious, looking for answer and eager to listen to this!

I am a life time learner and participated in a class this year that viewed and discussed the SAVING JESUS series on dvd’s. It was a very educational and, actually, a confirmation of many of the views I hold about Christianity. I am interested in exploring evolutionary Christianity further. I am a lay minister in Community of Christ and am open to learning new ways of thinking and understanding a creating and evolving Spirit that is in and of all things. Does this make sense? Anyway, I’m excited to be a part of your EVOLUTIONARY CHRISTIANITY SERIES.

I’m an Australian author and free-lance writer who did some master’s research on the evolutionary context of our Christian self-understanding and the a PhD on the parables of Jesus. As far as I can tell, the Gospel is a scandal – an absolute paradox, which means that the passion of faith doesn’t really conform to our demands for scientific certainty or objective proof. As Kierkegaard said about the gap between scientific evidence and the paradoxical pathos of faith:

“if God were a giant green bird, and regularly and conspicuously appeared thus in the town square, there would be much less skepticism about him, but also less passionate faith.”

But Christianity does need to embrace the evolutionary context of modern science, mainly because the serendipitous creativity of the evolving ‘chaos-mos’ is as Richard Dawkins said “queerer than we can imagine…. “

Hi all, I’m a minister of a Churches of Christ congregation in Hewett South Australia. I have come to this site via Richard Rohr and I am thrilled that this event is happening and look forward to experiencing the process.
It pains me when we are ready to kill, mame or hurt for a cause that never asks us to. We ignor history at our own perril it seems. From the tragedies of Columbus and Galileo one would have hoped that this latest (continued) debate on evolution would not be so heated and inflamatory, alas. Personally it is conversations like these that let me know that I am not alone in my experiences and deep wonder at this wonderful world that is continually evolving my understanding at its goings-ons and awe at its complexity and conectivity.
Each prayer I pray starts with “Ever creating God” and this event is onother step in liberating God, Chrsit and the Spirit from dogma and tradition. As always it seems God is doing a new thing, thank God. Because without God we continue to make a right mess of it all. Perhaps this next step in the conversation about God will help us to rest in the not knowing as much as celebrating the new understandings. More prase to God I think and thank you for puting it on!

At 64 years of age I have been a Uniting Church minister (Australia – UCA) for some 14 years. Raised a conservative Methodist I became a member of the Uniting Church when that union occurred in 1977. Growing up a Methodist boy in the Australian bush I was soon invited to conduct services in the ten congregation circuit. Soon after starting I was regularly told that I should be a Minister. I could not go down that path. Not only did I think that I had not the intelectual capacity but I really thought I could not be a minister because I did not – could not believe some of the seemingly essential doctrines of the church.
I was blessed to have a science teacher in my year 10 who gave me permission to hold the two sets of understandings in a creative tension. That was in 1961. How far ahead of his time was Michael?
Having persued other vocations and careers I finally found myself in need of some reflective and deep growth. The rest, as they say, is history. The process led me into Theological College and ordination at the end of 1996.
I am very interested in all and anything that will include considerations of the church and its doctrines in this new millennium. I have often lamented, mostly privately, that the church could not see the connections and wonders of the marriage of these two aspects of the revelation of the Spirit of God: worship and enlightenning discovery. The problem, it seems to me has been one of the need to have power and control. Of course these are significant human traits.
I applaud the effort that has and is being made in this process and look forward to being a part of it.
Denis H. Tasmania, Australia.

Hi all good people on this site, what a wonderful opportunity to share and learn!! Will I ever get off the site to get the housework done and go to work???!! I am a Catholic convert from an anti-Catholic Protestant background where in our home it was weird to read the Bible. Alas, I did anyhow! I discovered Catholicism in my teen years and mercifully Vat.II cemented a view of what the church could be and I converted a couple of years later. Since then my spiritual understanding has widened hugely and includes on equal footing Maori spirituality (I am a New Zealander) and Native American wisdom (I am a follower of the teachings of Tom Wilson through the MorningStar Lodge) as well as Buddhist teachings and traditions. To me they are all voices of the one amazing Spirit that enlivens and IS this most awesome Universe. I trained in microbiology and then in teaching, but in my mid-30′s re-trained as a psychosynthesis psychotherapist and have been practising ever since, some 30 years. Spirit is absolutely the core and divine navigator of my work. Its so wonderful to be able to share these conversations.

I’m Sandy from Winston-Salem, NC. I’m a psychotherapist, healing touch practioner, and associate healing dao instructor. I’m in teaching partnership with 3 others as part of an organization called Three Treasures Tai Chi LLC. My lifework is integrating body, mind, and spirit in all the aspects of my professional and private life. I’m a Roman Catholic of the inclusive variety (inclusive meaning daoism, buddhism, hinduism, native american spirituality as well as other christian groups). I”m looking forward to being in touch and dialogue with others who are seeking the integration of spirituality, science, and everyday life.

I am an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church (USA) serving since 2002 on the communication staff of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva, Switzerland. I am editor of one of the WCC quarterly journals, The Ecumenical Review, and I’m also active in the Geneva parish of the Church of Scotland.

Student of Earth Literacy Masters Program @ St. Mary of the Woods, in Indiana. As a student I was introduced to the universe story just a few years ago. Active in Transition movement (see transtionus.org) in my community.

Lisa Potter United Church of Canada. What an amazing opportunity Michael you have provided for us to learn new ideas and understandings and to share them with others. Thank you Bruce for emailing the Series information to me. You knew this would excite me. Two days ago I shared that I have been thinking and writing and preaching about the evoulution of consciousness for years, however, feeling somewhat alone in this. How wonderful to discover that so many others are of like mind or willing to think outside the box. Eternally grateful! Some further thoughts. When one observes on a cursory level the workings of the physical body one can be awestruck by its complexity. The human body with its esoteric anatomy as revealed through the Eastern sacred Scriptures and the body’s magnificent brain through which we live and experience our being, is an exceptional work of nature, which even in this age of science and technology in many ways remains a great mystery, one that is ever unfolding its secrets. Such is the nature of evolution! Mechanisms of the human brain’s operation reveal that we have two distinct thinking processes, the left brain that is analytical and verbal, producing linear thinking and the right brain that is intuitive and visual producing holistic thinking. The brain is believed to be under utilized by 85-90%. Given its tremendous potential one can only speculate on what that means for the evolution of consciousness and its changing process.
History reveals that the belief in the unchanging nature of thinking and the certainties which spring from that belief often fall flat in the face of new philosophical, religious and scientific enquiry. However throughout history great Cosmic maps or Blue prints have been given in exoteric and esoteric forms by Avatars such as Jesus, Buddha, Babiji, Krishna, and saints and sages throughout the ages for evolving humanity. Their recovery and the revelation of their esoteric knowledge will in time achieve for humanity the balance and harmony that comes from a united consciousness deeply rooted in its foundation – the Divine Ground of Being. When new understandings break new ground and mind sets are challenged, religious, philosophical, moral and scientific “certainties” undergo much disturbance. Such is the case in this present age. Never before in our recorded history has the human race been part of so great and widespread a challange of existing orders, beliefs and thought.
Throughout the history of the human race there have been great shifts in consciousness brought about by the evolutionary process. One such shift occured around 500 B.C. in the geographical regions of China, India and Persia (now Iran) and the Eastern Mediterranean, including Israel and Greece. At that time a deep dividing line of conaciousness occured — a great transformative movement of consciousness from the mythic, cosmic, ritualistic, collective consciousness of primordial people to the rational, analytic, critical, individualistic consciousness that has permeated the mainstream of Western thought to the present time. Such is the nature of evolution. This shift in consciousness occurred as a result of the supplanting of feminine, organic nature-centered right brain consciousness by masculine, differentiating, individual left brain consciousness. History reveals a movement from feminine Goddess archetypes to masculine God archetypes where rhe Goddess religions and cultures were supplanted by God religions and their cultures; where the thinking process moved from dominant intuitive thought experienced through the right brain to rational thinking experienced by the left brain, The Goddess, known by some as the Divine Mother receded and was replaced by the God, the Divine Sky Father. This is the pivotal point in humanity’s evolution where consciousness becomes separated and divided and eventally loses touch with the Divine Ground of Being. This great shift in consciousness had profound impact on the societies and cultures of the time, setting in motion great revolutionary changes worldwide throughout history and into the present age. However, this separated consciousness created great suffering for nature and all things feminine. Alas, it is a new day! Vivekananda, the great disciple of Ramakrishna, predicted the resurgence of the Divine Mother into the consciousness of the world’s population, after patriarchal religions had forced her into concealment in the unconscious.
The great Cosmic maps as given throughout the ages by the Avatars reveal the sacred knowledge and techniques needed to awaken humanity to a higher intergated level of cosciousness and beyond that will help humanity rediscover and open itself fully to its spiritual nature, thus establishing the Kingdom within as promised by all the Great Ones. Matt. 24:27 says, “For as the lightning comes from the east, and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” This is the prophecy that foretells the coming together of the sacred knowledge of the East and the West which will awaken the Christ light within the consciousness of the human race as it moves forth toward its goal of perfection. Blessings.

Born in Ireland. 18 years in religious life, 5 of those in monastic community. Life-long seeker. Currently non-affiliated: “believer in exille.” Have read many of Bishop Spong’s books, also Michael Morwood, Brother David, and Matthew Fox and have attended lectures/retreats by all 4. Have also read many of the Jesus Seminar publications and attended “seminar on the road.” Look forward to learning from kindred souls as time permits: currently dealing with cancer.

Greetings,…I am a sister of Holy Cross who has been working in rural Haiti for 32 years with my companion who has been here for 50 years.
Together, since the past 3 years we’ve been introducingt the New Story of Creation and the New Cosmology to our teachers and children. They take to it like ducks take to water !!! The Cosmology has become our passion and so many of our Haitien teachers and even adolescent and little kids are just as excited as we are.

The trickiest part is that relatively little materiel is available inj French so I spend hours and hours translating. I will be listening and translating the series as wekk for my companion, Sr. Monique. We were both excited about the series, and will be catching up with those that have already been broadcasts as well as catching the new ones ahead.

Greetings,…I am a sister of Holy Cross who has been working in rural Haiti for 32 years with my companion who has been here for 50 years.
Together, since the past 3 years we’ve been introducingt the New Story of Creation and the New Cosmology to our teachers and children. They take to it like ducks take to water !!! The Cosmology has become our passion and so many of our Haitien teachers and even adolescent and little kids are just as excited as we are.

The trickiest part is that relatively little materiel is available in French so I spend hours and hours translating. I will be listening and translating the series as well for my companion, Sr. Monique. We were both excited about the series, and will be catching up with those that have already been broadcasts as well as catching the new ones ahead.

I was a Trappist monk for 33 years. It was the Cistercian tradition whose charismatic founder was St Bernard of Clarvaiux in the 12th Century. I left monastic life in 1999 to pursue interest in healing. At present I am writing a book that uses meditation and natural ways of energy medicine to facilitate emotional and physical healing.

I am stunned by the wide variety of contributors to this project, some who I appreciate already, and some new names I look forward to hearing from.

The topic of evolution has been one of a handful that have constantly challenged and motivated me in my spiritual journey. I have seen the damage of fear-based beliefs about God and humans and like very much the idea of ongoing revelation, of science as one more way that the Ultimate enlightens, and that evolution is the best story yet for explaining our origin and purpose.

I look forward with interest, and I have to say a fair bit of skepticism, because I find a real temptation among well-intentioned believers is to simplify and tame evolution and bend it to old ideologies and so invalidate the process.

The reality of evolution, if lived with and accepted, changes everything, and I hope to find others who “get that.”

Regardless of my own opinions, I applaud the effort and spirit of the project and will recommend it highly to others.

I’m rather stunned (and thrilled!) by the stature, diversity, and number of Christian evolutionaries engaged in this conversation too, Richard!

As I’ve said many times in many forums, I’m an accommodationist of a different sort than the New Atheists rightly rail against. To my mind, EVERY religion needs to accommodate to what God/Reality is revealing through science or it will become toxic, irrelevant, or go extinct.

Well said Michael. Bravo for saying you are an accommondationist — that takes real courage! It seems somehow self evident that to be out of touch with reality is to be out of touch with God, but I suppose we all have a multitude of allusions and delusions we cherish. Good for you for recognizing the humanness of this and the humanness of religions. Isn’t it great to be working together to unravel infinite mystery?!

After many years of committing my life to serving in the institutional church, I have found peace and God working through small home fellowships and friends; encouraging others. I would classify myself as a christian mystic, after the tradition of Brother Lawrence or Jean Pierre deCaussade. But much of my life was spent as a biblical literalists. I regret embracing these close minded views, especially since my archaic views and the education of my children has branded me and reduced my influence with them. Twenty years ago, I initiated an outward pursuit of God which led me to several books written by internationally recognized scientists with a profession of faith. Their writings gave me tools to reconstruct a belief where evolution and faith can enhance the glory of God. I can now talk to my children with a respect for science rather then opposition. One of my children teaches medicine at the university level, was formerly a cell biologist and researcher. She continues with her research. Another child is a teacher at the high school level. The young earth theology did more to harm my childrens faith then any other religious argument. They continue to be challenged by the prevalence of this evangelical influence.
I applaud your efforts to bring sensibility and insight into this issue. If we are going to have an influence in the young people and represent Christ with wisdom, there must be an openess and creativity with the larger culture outside our belief system. Otherwise, we will have no influence with them. Biblical literalism is the last barrier to bringing God to the 4th dimension where he is alive and active in this present moment. Bless you my friends in your efforts.

I was raised a Catholic and now call myself a Christian who goes to the Catholic Church. It’s the community of people where I see God and continue to be nourished there and in my spiritual reading. We really do need eachother.

I’m a Unitarian Universalist minister presently serving a congregation in Las Vegas, Nevada. Most of my training and experience has been in Canada, as I was born and raised there. I met Connie and Michael and was most impressed with their passion and knowledge base when they shared some of their evolutionary excitement with the congregation I ministered to in Victoria, BC. I have also attended several evolutionary conferences and continue to grow in understanding of the importance of sharing these ideas and realities.
I intend to be an active listener to all that is said and have invited several members of my present congregation to join in these discussion. The more dialogue the better!
Warm regards, Jane

“He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
-Ecclesiates 3:11

I’m kind of leery of any big attempts to tie everything together. Perhaps that is a wise perspective to have, given the events of the last century. My own odyssey has led me through two degrees and perhaps graduate school in Earth Sciences next. My first degree was in English Literature and my second (which I’m finishing up now) is in Geology.
I have a very conservative Bible-believing evangelical background, and I think that still informs most of how I view the world. But I do have a good deal of questions and always have, over whether faith and science are mutually exclusive, tied together, or simply different ways of looking at a very large and strange universe. I am tending towards the latter at this stage in my life. I’m not entirely content with the idea of an “evolutionary Christianity” since I think many things in scripture are simply timeless. While the world is changeable and life a fleeting burst of green in a vast and largely empty universe, God at least, is timeless.
Part of what keeps me active and thinking about my faith and about science IS the apparent conflict between these two things. It puts stress in my life, but it’s the kind of stress that makes me think of things on a deeper level. Without the rigours of science to steer me on my spiritual journey, I would probably have been caught up in narrow-mindedness and “quick answers” Christianity and stayed there a lot longer than I did (thank heavens I was rebellious). Without the discipline of faith and scripture-reading, however, I would be truly lost in our anything-goes society. I don’t think God particularly likes either of these extremes.
All I will say in addition to that, is that I am interested in this dialogue, but I don’t know how comfortable I am likely to end up being in it. A part of me has always, somehow, ended up between warring parties; whether this was friends fighting about silly things in grade school, or Christians and Atheists fighting about whether belief in God was warranted or not. That’s not really the point for me — the point is whether I’m doing God’s will or not. The more I study this world, the more I know I will probably never know it all, or even a small fraction of it. I’m learning to be happy in my smallness and confusedness, knowing that some, quite a bit larger, Being has an interest in me. Perhaps I will just watch this debate from my position on the tight-rope, then. Hope you don’t mind.

An environmentalist and fan of evolution since childhood, I studied biology, philosophy, and English at Purdue University. As a biology student, I experienced a sudden epiphanic moment, realizing that my god was too “small”–that I had subconsciously compartmentalized my faith and not truly realized that I had kept all of the amazing scientific discoveries I was studying separate from my religion. All of my life I had been inspired by nature and felt the awesome presence of something larger in nature–I just hadn’t found a way to bring that to church.

To further explore religious meaning, I took religious studies courses at Purdue and met a fantastic philosophy professor who eventually introduced me to Process Theology. As a biology student, and under the guidance of this mentor, I wrote an award-winning philosophy paper on Buddhist-Christian dialogue based on a book by John B. Cobb and met noted Buddhist and Christian theologians at a Buddist-Christian encounter, hosted by Purdue during that time.

Just after graduating, I worked briefly under this influential professor as editorial assistant for The American Journal of Theology and Philosophy. I also eventually followed groups like The Center for Progressive Christianity and The Templeton Foundation in my quest to integrate my interests in science and religion/spirituality.

Years later, a friend in Tennessee told me about Michael’s and Connie’s work, and I invited them to come speak before our homeschool group in the Dayton, OH area, where some of my UU friends became enamored with their work. I have the impression that ever since that time, our local UU church regularly invites Connie and Michael back to speak to an entralled audience.

Thanks for the invitation! I am a Presbyterian minister, chair of our presbytery’s Theology & Worship Committee here in Phoenix, and a member of the Theological Dialogue Commission of the Arizona Ecumenical Council. My dad was a scientist and I have always been interested in the subject of science and the Christian Faith. Just learned of you today, Dec. 11, but will follow the presentations from here on. I just finished Brian Greene’s The Elegant Universe and The Privileged Planet by Gonzalez and Richards; good books!

Michael, I’ve been entranced by the 2 1/2 sessions I’ve listened to, mostly by the references to the mystical and the ‘union’ with God and what I would refer to as the ‘Communion of Saints’ or Mystical Body… Have you considered interviewing folks like Richard Rohr who has been doing 2 series on “Emerging Church”? Or are there any theologians who delve into the mystics who you think would contribute to your conversations?
Thank you for reaching out with these ‘starters’….
Rachelle

Our Monday morning study group at Eugene First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has completed a study of Jim Burklo’s book, “Open Christianity- Home by another road.” Our pastor, Dan Bryant is very successfully guiding us as a Progressive Christian Congregation. This very evening our church is hosting an Interfaith Prayer service for all faiths which we have been doing every Month on the 11th without missing since the 9/11 attack.
There is excitement in the faith with reason and we have you and many other progressives etc. to thank for it.

Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves. — Fides et Ratio, JP2

I was raised as a “Heinz 57″ protestant, converted to Roman Catholicism as an adult. I am an engineer, and consider myself a scientist and a seeker of truth on a lifetime faith journey. Growing up, I spent alot of time in nature, and have always known in my gut this concept of evolutionary christianity. The convergence of my faith with evolution, psychology, and other sciences resonates with truth to my very core.

Thanks to Fr. Richard Rohr, whom I have never met, but has influenced me greatly through his teachings.

This is my first time visiting this web site. I’m looking forward to exploring it more thoroughly.

I grew up Catholic, but I’m very skeptical about organized religion and the dogma that one is required to believe to be a good Christian (i.e. Jesus is the literal son of God, the belief that the mother of Jesus, Mary, was a virgin, the notion that Catholicism/Christianity is the one “true” faith, etc.). For most of my adult life, I have regarded the Catholic Church (and a lot of Christianity) as a bastion of ignorance and as an institution where critical thinking was considered a bad thing (because you might actually think for yourself and come to conclusions that were at odds with church doctrine/dogma). Evolution is a good example. In my home state of Kansas, religious conservatives get themselves elected to local school boards (or the state school board) and use that position to push their religious beliefs into science classrooms by ruling that creationism (in the form of Intelligent Design) should be taught along side evolution. It serves to waste peoples time, confuses kids (who should be studying evolution and marveling how mankind has uncovered so much evidence to explain our planet’s biological diversity), and attempts to place religious beliefs in a science classroom.

Recent surveys show that nearly 40% of the American public believe that the earth is less than 10,000 years old. This is but another example of the ignorance promoted by organized religion (mainly christianity in the US) and the power it has over people.

I applaud the efforts by those of you associated with this web site to reconcile science and religion. I believe that it is possible to be “spiritual” and to also have a healthy respect for science and what it can tell us. I’m not so sure that an orthodox christian who fervently believes the doctrine of their religion can appreciate what science has to offer (particularly when evidence conflicts with their preconceived notions about the world and nature).

I believe that spirituality is essential to help us cope with the ups and downs that we experience in life (e.g. science offers us nothing to help deal with the loss of a loved one), and I believe with equal vigor that science is essential in helping us to understand the world around us (e.g. spirituality is useless in explaining how a bacteria might cause an infection and how an antibiotic may help us to survive that infection). We need them both (spirituality and science), and we need to help people to understand that the two can coexist in harmony.

Hello! I am a poet and have been exploring the links between Spirituality/Deism/Quantum Physics and man. I was referred to this site by my spiritual director who is aware of my love for science and religion and that I see the two as completly compatible. I am a recent convert to Catholocism having felt to be at odds with other ‘Christian’ denominations. I am looking forward to seeeing how this group will address the issue.
I also want to comment on the fossil fish as a symbol- it’s dead brilliant! Bravo!

I was raised Roman Catholic, but over the years Religion slowly become something of the past. Way too many flaws in Religion, though, I still continue to send my son a Catholic school, as I believe it does help provide guidance in live compared to public schools.

I have always mentioned to my friends I believed scinece and religion could co-exist, (its funny, i work with a hardcore religious freak, athiest to the extreme and a gay, not sure, because religion doesn’t approve of him) . I’m thrilled to see what this site has to offer. Mind you this seems almost like a die-hard christianity shindigs I see on TV. Let’s keep this a internet based site, no meeting up, especially for “drinks”.

I can’t even express how thrilled I am to be participating in this wonderful series! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I have thought myself to be a bit, (no more than that) crazy for at least 10 years as I have examined and prayed with all of the questions you are discussing. Where have you people been!!?? About 10 years ago I came up with my new name for the Divine—GOAB (Ground of All Being). Well, GOAB has certainly led me to this exchange and all of you to the evolutionary level you are expressing!

this is a great opportunity! in my work as an Episcopal priest with a focus on faith formation in all of its ways, i daily come in contact with well read, professionals and young families who are seeking a way to know more about their faith and how to live it. it is the “Monday morning” seekers — Sunday church is the place to gather and renew but they are longing for application and ways to relate to their own children throughout the week.
we are being drawn to understand that all of creation moves forward with something greater than us. these conversations are exactly what is stirring.
thank you –

Michael, I happened to find the invitation to your excellent series of spiritually based discussions in my email box today viia Richard Rohr’s Center on Action and Contemplation. As a woman who grew up in a very rooted Irish Catholic community, I was one who believed that Faith is a security blanket for every season of my life as defined by theology one would never dare to question. (The church did my thinking for me in matters of Faith.) It was not until I went to a Catholic graduate school in the Vatican ll era that I felt a spiritual earthquake of faith begin to evolve in my life; the ” security blanket” was ripping to shreds in my life and I felt angry and so disillusioned.I went searching for another meaning to my faith or something I could hold on to while sailing my own spiritual Titanic! (I can relate to your charismatic experiences!) I was left floating for a very long time on a sea of darkness, confusion and anger when it came to religion. As my wife, mother and grandmother, former educator and legislative director, my faith in the Church was a constant struggle which I never saw as an evolution of Faith until I began to read your introductory conversations today. (Yes, I agree with John Shelly Spong that faith is not a religion; it is about helping you to become more of who you really are and meant to be in this life? I welcome learning and growing via this web conversation. Thank you.

Hello, Companions,
I am a 66-year-old Catholic Sister and am already a firm believer in the compatability of science and religion. A creation-centered spirituality has shaped my prayer life since I was a child. I am very eager to hear each of the speakers in this wonderful series. Thank you for putting it all together.
Rosel

Michael, I heard you speak several years at The Well in LaGranage Park/ I live 15 minutes away and take part in their programs whenever I can. Most recent “Awakening the Dreamersl” I am a Catholic and have been a School Sister of Notre Dame for 53 years. Have been on the way to EvCh since I first read Chardin many years ago and have been reading and listening intently for sometime now. I am so happy and feel so fortunate to be take part in the teleseries! So far I have only heard the 1st two speakers but already have had my beliefs validated and expanded. Especiall the Theology of Fragility.. What a tr emendous way to look at the all the suffering in this world, people, animals, the planet herself. My heart often hurts when I see or hear of suffering of all kinds and now I have a livfe-giving way to look at it. Seems to explain St. Paul’s words about “filling up what is wanting in the sufferings of Christ!”

Efforts to enlist interest in this topic amongst mature adults in this area of Texas has been met with nothing, mostly silence. However, I did have the opportunity to speak before a high school church group and they are ravenously hungry for truth here, even though their parents are not.

I was fortunate enough to have recently listened to Michael Dowd’s presentation and to meet him in person at the Murray Grove (Unitarian Universalist) Camp and Conference Center in Forked River, NJ

I was astounded to discover that Michael’s presentation embraced, orchestrated and “opened the doors” to new, refreshing and promising ways of perceiving our universe, ourselves, our spiritual traditions and pportunities and responsibilities we share for its continued, beneficial Creation and transformation.

Having just finished THANK GOD FOR EVOLUTION, I find myself eager to add my voice and energy to the mission Michael Dowd has defined and articulated; I look forward to using the brushes of both “Night Language” and “Day Language” for crafting the ever changing panorama of our emerging futures.

By dint of many years of much “suffering for righteousness’ sake” in upholding and defending my profession of engineering, its code of ethics, and the public health and safety as a licensed professional engineer (PE) employed by U.S. Department of Energy as a nuclear safety engineer, I have become an influential member of mankind’s largest and most global professon of engineering, whose 20 million degreed members collectively hold civilization and much of the natural environment in their hands.

My critique of the “faith-science” movement is that it is sterile in that nothing changes in the practice of science or practice of religion because of it. This, in my opinion, enables much evil, particularly institutional evil, to take root and flourish, contributing to much human suffering.

It is true that we, as engineers, have the greatest potential to be significant nurturers of our environment as well as the natural resources, and I appreciate your bringing this up. We can practice Christian teachings in our everyday work and have a significant effect. Up to this point, though, your charge that the faith and science movement has been sterile is largely correct. However, when right is on our side it is imperative that we keep the pressure on the rest of the population. One of the most significant things that we can do, in my opinion, is to try to influence public education so that science is truly emphasized. This will better enable the acceptance of evolution as well as other environmental programs which reduce consumption of our natural resources as well as control pollution. After all, the world is not going to come to an end at the end of our lives, and our descendants have an equal right to a good quality of life, though one that might be different that what we have enjoyed.

One problematic thing about engineers is that most of us work for companies or agencies, or consult with the like, and in this way we are not in total control of the result of our work. I think that part of your comments tend to address this. But, if we have strong feelings we can express them staff meetings as well as professional association meetings and, in some small way, affect future life.

A “profession” is, by definition, significantly self-regulating. Engineering is, in a sense, the future of professions as engineers have always typically been employees, something that is becoming more and more the case with MD’s, lawyers, etc.

Are you licensed? Have you been an active member of any engineering professional societies? Most Christian (as other) engineers say “no – I do not see the professional need/advantage.”

The tacit premise of such a statement is “engineering is not a profession, it is a trade, I have no loyalty to the profession as it does not merit any – there is no “ought” regarding PE licensure or donating time/money to be an active member of a professional society – it doing so advances my professional interests, fine, but I have no professional duty to the profession, or its code of ethics – my professional duty is only to my employer.”

That reasoning, in my opinion, goes far to explain the BP Gulf Disaster and the great amount of instititional evil around world that exists in our profession or is advanced by it.

I apologize for not getting back to your comments sooner, but other events intervened.

Yes, I am a licensed professional engineer in two states and have held national officer positions in ASME. Additionally, I held a faculty position for over 20 years in mechanical engineering. That being said, though, I must agree with your assessment that engineers typically do not view their work as a profession but rather as a trade. That has been a frustrating realization throughout my professional career. I don’t think that the Christian label really comes to play there; many who are not religious at all fall in the same category.

Possibly there could be a link between an engineer’s commitment to society and to the Earth’s environment and one’s religious beliefs, that is an interesting proposition. I will think about that.

Note that I did not exclude Muslim, Hindu, Buddhists or Jewish et al. engineers from that group. I believe that Christianity should motivate engineers to being professionally responsible but I do not think that it is necessarily exclusive, based on my experience.

Hello Michael. I am keenly interested in the teleseries. Though I am able to download the conversations I much prefer the written word to the audio. With the written word I can chew on it, mull it over etc. I have found the choice quotes from your conversations with B.McLaren, Jim Burklo, John Cobb and intend to print them. But I can’t find the same for anybody else. Can you help me? Is there any possibility that the conversations be available in print format, a summary or some such thing?
I have been a student of evolutionary christianity for over 25 yr., and can’t get enough of it. I am an Ursuline sister, 75 yr. of age, and have the time and life style now to immerse myself contemplatively in all matters evolutionary. A text to read is precious to me.
I thank God every day that you are able to continue what you are doing, that cancer is not your path now. The photo of you sitting back in blissful contemplation of the new life resting skin to skin with you is one I am going to print and gaze on every day. Is that all right with you?

Boy! What a motley crew of mixed folk! Well, I might as well throw myself into the mythical primordial green pea soup, too. I am a Biblical Universal Reconciliationist, who uses the Greek manuscripts to prove ALL mankind will be ultimately DRAWN back to The LORD God, so that He will be ALL in ALL (again?). i.e. Hell/sheol/hades is not permanant – just look in Revelation. I also am a Divine Intelligence Design supporter and familiar with Non-reduceable complexities, such as humans, and hundreds of other ‘created’ un-evolved things. I am though, glad there are differences; I can take that, indifference is not tolerable. I love to share thoughts and science with others and the GOOD News of ALL our Salvations. I was born in texas, moved to L.A. Ca., and was a cartoonist, then went the Missionary rout, studied and gained 332 credit units, and have been a Biblicist for 38 years. At the moment, i am translating the Greek myself as a fun study to see where the JKV went wrong. It does not take a PH’D – any normal average brain can do it. So, I’m well educated, Even tho I still cann’t spaell wards rite!!! LOL ….Love is the CAKE and Humor is the Iceing on the cake; and if we all cannot sit and eat this cake together and agreeably argue and contemplate the Platapous? s.p.? and laugh about it, then we all have a big fat problem worse than the conflicting view points themselves. God help us all – and He ‘WILLs’ too!
May we ”all” get threw ”all” these “eons of the eons” together into God’s hands into that wonderful final state. Not one of us humans being left out. PS. this is a great site, I love it too, like MY other sites I go to.

PS. OH,….. I forgot to mention above in my post, that my favorite book is ‘Darwin’s Black Box’. Have ya’ll read that book? woooooo! Now I am interested in learning BOTH sides!!!!!!!!! Funny how opposing views leads one to study both sides of things – such a wonderful dualistic world we live in. PS. Again, am also a writer, artist, comedian, actor, film maker, UH???? antique TV repair technician, and I collect dinosaur period amber inclusions!!! LOL
ROSS

I, too, had the privilege taking a week long seminar with Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, quite some years back. Actually a Benedictine monastic friend put me on to these two fellows, who I didn’t know from Adam. At the time I was only beginning to think in terms of Science and Spirituality. Anyway, I moved into this field as a philosopher in scientific metaphysics. A second life, so to speak, in that I had earlier retired as a science and technology analyst with government.

Years later I attended a special ceremony at the Catholic University of America, celebrating the work of Thomas Berry–especially his then recent book with Swimme: “The Universe Story.”

After he finished his speech, I had occasion to talk with Fr. Berry.
I told him about the earlier seminar, how it had prompted me to return to graduate school and take an advanced degree program that allowed me to move into the then nearly unheard of field of Science and Spirituality.

With this, Thomas Berry gave me the broadest of smile, his eyes lighting up, and he wrote me a nice note in my copy of his book.

Much later, I managed also to volunteer out here in California as a docent naturalist and found Fr. Berry’s “The Great Work” inspiring.
This good man lived a full and fruitful life.

I am a Benedictine sister in Chicago, and was invited by a friend in
my community to join in this Evolutionary Christianity experience this Advent. I have been slow in responding and am now happy to have delved in. I look forward to somehow catching up on the video conferences I have missed so far.

For about eight years I have listened regularly to Krista Tippett’s program, Speaking of Faith (now called On Being), and I read with great interest the record of some of those conversations published as Einstein’s God.

I am Director of a Buddhist center here in Kansas City and also studying to be a Unity minister. My senior minister, Duke Tufty, first introduced me to Michael Dowd’s work a few years ago. I’m fascinated. Currently, I am struggling to stay in integrity with my Buddhist practice while also ministering to a Christian congregation. I believe Jesus was an amazing Bodhisattva, but can’t stomach most of the Bible. How to find the balance? Is there a balance between the two?

Perhaps you might meditate or reflect on what you love about the Buddha and then read the Gospels contemplatively. If you see the Buddha in your heart, you probably will see Christ there too. Polish the mirror – your way of looking at things – it’s the same process as attending to the lamp of our eye.

I suppose better late than never…today I finally opened the email from the Center for Action and Contemplation inviting me to participate in this series.

I am a chemistry professor at Saint Vincent College, a small Catholic, Benedictine, liberal arts college about 40 miles east of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The 2010-2011 academic year is my 20th year of working as a fulltime faculty member. I earned a B.A. in biochemistry from Temple University and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I teach a range of undergraduate courses – general chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, and several different courses for nonscience majors. For the past six years I have been particularly interested in creating opportunities within my biochemistry courses that support integrative learning. Outside of Saint Vincent, I have been involved in several projects (regional and national) that seek to reform and improve science education (including the teaching of evolution).

In terms of religious faith, I am an adult convert to Christianity. My parents were Jewish (father) and Presbyterian (mother); when they married they agreed that any children would be free to choose their own spiritual path. At 18 I read the New Testament and felt a call to follow the path of Christianity, but I wasn’t baptized until graduate school. I was baptized in the Episcopal Church and still think of myself in many ways as Episcopalian, but at the moment my wife and I are members of a Lutheran congregation because that church has a better understanding of “the primacy of love” than the closest Episcopal churches to where we live.

The phrase “the primacy of love” comes from Fr. Benedetto Calati, the former Prior General of the Camadolese Benedictine monks. It sums up much of my understanding at this time of Christianity; I encountered the phrase shortly before I became an oblate of New Camaldoli Hermitage, the Camaldolese Benedictine community in Big Sur, CA. I recently marked the 12th anniversary of my reception as an oblate; that relationship has taken me on a journey that has transformed my understanding of my faith, my work, and the relationship between science and religion.

I am an Indian and I am a nurse by profession .In our day to day life we come across many people and I would like to share the gospel with them in an acceptable manner.I think that this session will help me to do so.Thanks for arranging a session like this.May God bless your ministry abundantly.

Michael, thanks for this important work. I’ve been a student of the intersections of spirituality, technology / science, and culture for many years. There’s a pervasive myth that scientists and academics in general are disinterested in (or hostile towards) spirituality. Yet a number of academic surveys have shown the opposite – that spirituality is embraced by a sizable majority of the scientific and academic community. It’s work like yours that helps keep the conversation interesting and engaging.

One bit of good news is that, among academics who hold some manner of religion or spirituality, fully 95% embrace an evolutionary understanding of life. I’ve linked some important surveys here: tiny.cc/xub4k

I am excited about this “advent-event” and I am looking forward to many comments and sharings. I am 72 and retired and a computer-kindergardener….But I have a wise enough soul to feel I can participate…..Johanna

As an Episcopalian for most of my Christian journey, I wasn’t taught that evolution (or science or intellectual curiosity) contradicted my faith. My spiritual formation seems to have confirmed “hard-wiring” which causes me to see, understand and hold various positions in tension as parts of a whole too complex (and interesting) to understand fully through any single system (or meta-narrative, despite what appears to be an indelible human tendency to construct them). I find myself both a “bad” post-modernist in that I continue to construct various meta-narratives myself and increasingly post-modern in agreeing that the dichotomies modernity helped to construct – the very pitting of faith against science that this effort and Michael are working to deconstruct – do not serve any of us or the world we live in well (whether we position ourselves as people of faith or people of no faith or people opposed to faith).

I am a lawyer and part-time judge (and part-time corporate compliance & ethics specialist), who says – only half jokingly – that the Bible is a book written by lawyers for lawyers; sometimes the lawyers have better insights than the theologians and biblical scholars about what is going on and why. I am also a graduate student working on an interdisciplinary PhD in Religious Studies and Theology with a concentration in Theology, Philosophy, and Cultural Theory. My long-term academic and professional interests center on the intersections between sacred and secular law, law & ethics (especially the growing tendency to codify ethics as law), and the place of law in Christian community, given both Jesus’ disputes with the Pharisees and his insistence that he did not come to do away with the law, but to fulfill it.

I am a long-time mentor of the Education for Ministry (EfM) program mentioned by an earlier poster. This is an extension program of the School of Theology (an Episcopal Seminary) at the University of the South, based on the notion that all Christians, not just the ordained/clergy, need to be educated in their faith (Scripture, tradition and theology) in order to discern and live into our God-given vocation. I am also trained as a Catechist for Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, a Christian education program for children, based on the developmental work of Maria Montessori; as well as a Storyteller for Godly Play, the fourth generation of Montessori teaching developed by Jerome Berryman as he “followed the children,” the way CGS founders Sofia Cavalletti and Gianna Gobbi taught him. My job (as Catechist/Storyteller) is to offer the children the language and the tools of the Christian people so that they can develop and articulate their innate relationship with God – and try not to damage them too much in the process with my own issues.

I recently read (for my paper in a class on Ritual Studies) parts of Jurgen Moltmann’s Theology of Play and all of Robert E. Neale’s response challenging Moltmann’s exclusion of the Crucifixion from his theology of play. Contra Moltmann, Neale argues that God is the ultimate player, who enters the game (or “adventure”) in the Incarnation, not knowing and not anxious about the outcome, with “winning” or even with status. Only to the extent we are also free from anxiety will be be free to love others and to participate in the suffering of others in live-giving ways, rather than merely as a means of managing our own suffering.

I look forward to this adventure, the Advent of Evolutionary Christianity, to getting to “know” the other participants, and to all the challenges and opportunities each offers.

When I was at Chicago God Died and fortunately I was introduced to Whitehead and then John Cobb’s work. I eventually went to Claremont to study with him and David Ray Griffin.

From the 70′s to the middle 80′s I was a university chaplain at The University of British Columbia and through students in science we created a religion and science group made up of faculty. That has been an interest for me since then.

I am a United Church of Canada clergy and describe myself as a Process Theologian and now run events in Ottawa through the Madawaska Institute

For some reason tonight December 15th I could access neither the real time conversation with Ken Miller nor the Audio Download some time later. I haven’t had problems other nights so was there something amiss with transmission or what ? I’d appreciate your information.

My father, a former Lutheran from Germany, and my mother, a former Anglican from England, emigrated to Canada, married, and started their new life in a small northern Ontario mining community, where the only church was a United Church.

As a teen I decided to search for more meaning, and have attended many different types of churches, often with unsatisfactory results.

While attending a Baptist church, I remember always, always, always debating on the side of evolution! It always made so much sense to me, so I am most interested in following this interesting series.

I have been a member of a wonderful small Unitarian Universalist congregation in Thunder Bay for five years now. I have researched many different religions and have worked hard to come to my own conclusions. The fellowship to which I now belong encourages my search, and for that I am most grateful. My unhappy experiences with other churches, and especially the evangelical ones, seemed to base everything on GUILT!!!

I first came to know Michael Dowd’s work when he and Connie Barlow visited my home church in Minneapolis, Hennepin Avenue UMC.

I’m now an MDiv student at Emory University-Candler School of Theology in Atlanta. It’s been a real shock relocating to the southeastern U.S. Religion is a LOT more conservative here. I have a several younger fellow-student colleagues who care about the environment and see it as a churchly concern, but they don’t connect their concerns to the theology of holy presence in all of creation.

I came to theology school hoping to become an evangelist for creation centered theology and evolutionary Christianity. But this is turning out to be a bigger challenge than I had anticipated! I’ve become aware of other local progressive Christians and congregations through progressivechristianity.org, but I’d love to meet more folks in the southeast, and specifically in Atlanta, who are working on new forms of worship and liturgy that reflect a much larger universe than the one found in the Bible. Thanks!!